Nightmare Breaker
by Quaver Ava
Summary: This is not journey of a Void Mage through the nightmare of Yharnam. It is a tale of moments and change. It is the cleansing of blood, the shattering of dreams, and the story of those who should have died.
1. Chapter 1

" _When I felt the presence, I didn't know what I was doing by reaching out to it. How could I know? Obviously, I didn't have the insight to understand that what I was reaching for through my dreams was divine and had ulterior motives." It should be noted that Miss Vallière paused and found what she was about to say next was amusing despite her trauma. Her laughter could be compared to that of madman's. "What does any man want from a woman?"_

* * *

The Doll awoke in a strange place with a girl's lips pressed to hers. Despite the odd circumstance, the Doll had experienced stranger things. "Child, what is it you desire of me? To please your worldly wants?" The pink haired girl didn't seem to hear her on this plain of existence. Rather, the child must have thought it was a good time for a nap and lost consciousness to her waking world. The girl's body stood up and stumbled. She looked around her as confusion set on her youthful features.

The Doll pushed herself up off the ground some and watched as the girl mumbled to herself and then stopped abruptly. "A monster!" And then the girl let out a world shattering scream as her body jerked and convulsed, falling to the ground without breath.

The Doll made to check on the girl, getting to her feet but stopped. A bald man rushed forward and knelt by the girl, speaking in the girl's tongue asking if she was okay. He touched her neck and his concern turned to terror. The Doll looked away, understanding that the girl must have died within her dream.

Around her were other strangers standing under the sun's warm embrace. They sort of gawked at the scene, none of them saying anything. Some of the girls had their hands to their mouths, as if to block the horrible situation from entering their lungs. The Doll found humans odd with their expressive body language.

Stepping close to the bald man, the Doll knelt down. She ignored a young man, with blond hair and a flower as a magic focus, as he gave a sudden outburst of emotion and accused her of killing the girl. He did give the Doll the girl's name though, Louise.

The Doll touched Louise's cheek, noting the strange symbols burned into her own hand, and breathed bloodechoes into the child. Color immediately returned to Louise's cheeks, and she gasped, her eyes fluttering away their death stare and focused. "What? Where am I now?" Louise blinked again and tears broke free, rolling across her delicate skin.

The bald man grabbed Louise's shoulders and gave them a light shake. "Louise! Speak to me, what's wrong?"

The girl didn't reply, but turned her head as if surveying a different landscape. The Doll knew through cosmic insight that the girl wasn't truly in this world. The girl was dreaming but her body remained in this place, still animated and connected to her realm.

With the gentlest touch the Doll could muster, she pulled the bald man's right hand away from the girl. "She cannot hear you, for she is slumbering."

"You did something to her when she made you her familiar." The man whispered, staring back at the Doll with fear in his eyes.

"I do not know what I have done. I am but a doll, made to take care of those who dream." The Doll trailed off as she took in the vast world around her. It was strange, bright, and full of sensation. "I should not be…" Her words fell short as she regarded the creatures that were with the group of children, one of them of notable greatness. Connections and insight washed through her and she understood. Looking down to Louise's fearful expression, the doll closed the girl's eyes, calming the child's body. "I feel pity for the maiden. She is not a Hunter, but she must be."

"What are you going on about?" The bald man grabbed the Doll's shoulders and shook her roughly.

The Doll panicked and yelped, fearful at the sudden attack of motion and expectant pain.

The man stopped, but the damage was done.

The Doll shied away from him, remembering hundreds of frustrated Hunters as they slaughtered her again and again. She grabbed Louise into her arms, perhaps to protect the girl from the violent bald man. The Doll didn't know where she was, or why she was here, but she felt an urge to take care of the girl. To protect her? The Doll understood maternal instincts. She was made to ease the hearts of Hunters in the Hunter's Dream. But the physical protection and defense of her masters? That was a foreign feeling.

The Doll accepted those feelings and outreached a hand into the fabric of space and pulled out a basic steel sword. The runes burned into her hand glowed and she understood not through insight but power of how to use the blade. It was a foreign sensation of which she accepted as simple fact of this strange place.

The bald man gaped at her. He worked his jaw and then coughed into his hand, blushing. He mumbled something about strange magic and not intending to provoke her. The Doll understood that blushing was a sign of shame and or embarrassment. She let go of the sword and it returned to the void from which it came.

"You do not mean to harm me? I wish no violence." The Doll said, careful of the man and the loud crowd of children. "I am here for her." The Doll pulled Louise close to her breast, hoping to make the girl comfortable in some way. Louise mumbled about finding weapons and confused why she suddenly knew how to use those weapons. Good, it seemed though the girl was not a hunter, the dream would provide for her. On second thought, it also seemed that the Doll had a strange connection or bond with the girl. She instantly felt as if she knew the girl for many decades. So despite Louise not being a hunter, the Doll would provide.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you miss, uhh?"

"I am but a Doll."

"Miss Doll, I didn't mean to startle you. Talking familiars is rather unheard of, and you seemed to have cursed Louise in some manner." The bald man's face melted into an expression of pleading. "Would you mind, fixing whatever you did?"

"I do not know what I did." The Doll regarded the child in her arm. Louise's body was now hugging the Doll, sniffling into the Doll's breast. "I will care for her." It seemed to be why she was here at least. She wrapped her other arm around the girl again, hoping to comfort the child further. Closing her eyes, the Doll searched and reached for plausible reasons why Louise was unconscious and her spirit stretched from this place.

"I did not do this." The Doll said, understanding coming to her. It was not her doing for why the girl slumbered. There was a sense of a familiar touch between the eldritch blood in her veins and a presence far, far away. She did not share that information with the bald man, for he wouldn't understand. She didn't understand completely herself to be honest.

One of the children from the group ventured forward. "So, uhm, what just happened? Did Louise go crazy or something? Was her sanity the cost for actually summoning a familiar?" The girl's tone was haughty with abrasive words, but the Doll understood the concern in the girl's intent.

"I do not know. I should not be here." The Doll said simply, an honest admission of ignorance. "She is slumbering."

The new girl folded her arms over her ample breasts and frowned. "So she'll be fine once she wakes up?"

The Doll cocked her head to the side, giving Louise a light squeeze, a gentle hug. "Maybe?"

"Class is over!" The bald man seemed to have realized that the situation should perhaps be moved to a more private place. "We'll take care of Miss Vallière. She'll be fine, and her familiar will be questioned."

No one moved, rather many of the children walked forward and started bombarding the bald man with questions. They all prattled without useful information to the current event. They acted in their strange human way of insistence for knowledge from those who could not provide answers. The Doll felt herself become overwhelmed from all the voices and she drifted off into cosmic thought, enjoying the sensation of flow that time and space provided her.

Suddenly she felt someone prying Louise from her arms and the Doll returned to Louise's waking world. The Doll pulled Louise closer, meeting the eyes of the person trying to take her charge away from her. It seemed she must have drifted a little too much, because she had been moved to a new place with beds and medical supplies. A nurse was trying to take Louise away from the standing Doll.

"Please, they said you could talk, so let go of the girl!" The nurse said, pulling harder with frustration.

The Doll let Louise go. A human might have said something, questioned where they were, or ask if they could stay by their charge's side. The Doll simply stood, watching as the nurse laid Louise down on the bed and muttered about bothersome familiars.

All seemed to be well, so the Doll stood and ignored the nurse but watched Louise's chest slowly rise and fall.

The nurse tapped the Doll on the shoulder, grabbing her attention. "Hey, I asked if you would come with me. The professors has questions."

"I will stay by the young hunter's side." The Doll said.

Perhaps as a pure coincidence or the workings of divine beings, Louise suddenly convulsed and shook. The Nurse yelped, grabbing Louise's arms as they thrashed. The Doll waited, expecting. And then Louise fell still, coughing up phantom blood that faded into mist inches from her mouth. The nurse looked at the Doll with a horrified expression.

Leaning down, the Doll breathed life back into the girl and stood again. Louise began to breathe again, and talk.

"I-I died again? Those stupid dogs! I'll kill them and blow them to pieces!" Louise yelled, sitting bolt upright in her bed. She had the ferocious expression of a frustrated hunter after a humiliating defeat. The Doll had seen such expressions many times before.

"Miss Vallière!" The nurse exclaimed, grabbing Louise's shoulders and pushing her back onto the bed. The girl's body accepted the nurse's touch, but Louise's spirit continued to speak.

"By the Founder, I hate this place! You, stupid Golem, you did this to me!"

The Doll felt a bolt of pain in her ribs. As if she was kicked while lying down. The Doll frowned and leaned over Louise. She regarded the child, wondering how violent her new master was. It would be awful to wake up back in the Hunter's Dream and the child abuse her. The Doll accepted such mistreatment from her masters, but she preferred a relationship with connection and companionship.

"Please." Louise began to sob, her face scrunching up into an ugly grimace. "Let me go home, you trapped me here in this awful place. I want to go home."

The Doll met the nurse's eyes. "I did not do this."

"She says you trapped her." The nurse said, frowning as she also regarded Louise talking. The nurse slowly let Louise's shoulders go stepping back. The girl's body lay calm in the bed, tears still streaming from her eyes.

"She's not really here." The nurse whispered and then her voice rose. "You took her mind. Somehow, by the Founder, you stole her sanity!" The nurse stepped away, the accusation in her eyes turning to fear.

"I need to be by her side. She could die if I am not." The Doll said. Humans could be irrational and not grasp simple connections. Moments ago Louise had died, the nurse saw it, but despite the Doll bringing Louise back right away, the nurse still might not see the importance of witnessing such an event.

The nurse tightened her hands into fists. "Stay here if you must!" She stepped away from the bed, keeping a cautious eye on the Doll and walked to the door. She peeked outside, as if looking for someone and then pointed. "You!"

"Yes!" A high pitched and feminine voice yelped back.

"Seista, go get professor Colbert and the Headmaster! The _thing_ refuses to leave and I won't leave it alone with my patient!"

"Thing?"

"Come here and look at it. It's a live size talking doll. By the Founder it's creepy." The nurse looked over her shoulder, glaring at the Doll.

The Doll didn't care. Matter of fact, she was used to some Hunters unnerved by her existence. It was a fact of life, so she paid no heed to the nurse.

Louise sat up again, her legs swinging over the bed. With a gentle hand, the Doll pushed Louise's animated body back down and calmed her. The girl's eyes closed, hiding her distant stare, and her body relaxed as it returned to a fitful sleeping state.

Standing straight again, the Doll looked at the nurse, noting the irate expression on the woman's face. Perhaps the nurse had come to a conclusion that the Doll was controlling Louise. In truth, the Doll was the only one who could care for the girl in her current state.

A girl with black hair and wearing a maid's cap peeked in. She regarded the Doll with curious eyes for the briefest of moments and turned her head up to the nurse. "It's pretty?"

"Girl! Go and get the faculty!"

"Yes Ma'am!" And the girl ducked back, her run echoing back into the infirmary with fading thumps.

The Doll grabbed Louise's hand. The nurse walked back and pulled up a chair. Not caring for the human's irrational anger, the Doll focused her attention on Louise. She pondered, her mind drifting away on cosmic current. Instead of letting herself be taken by the flow, she pushed herself and swam towards Louise's mind, breaking past the barrier that kept their souls apart, and entered Louise's dreams.

The Doll sped up Louise's awareness, time distorting between reality and the girl's perception. With that done, the Doll waited back in the Hunter's Dream. Only a few seconds in real time past until Louise appeared again in the haven built for Hunters. She stepped towards the workshop but stopped and turned to regard the Doll, who to Louise's eyes now seemed to be standing and alive.

"Hello good Hunter." The Doll greeted and bowed.

"Great, you're alive." Louise pulled her cane from her side and snapped it through the air, turning it into a bladed whip. "You better start explaining before I disassemble you."

The Doll prepared to begin the speech she constructed when a second figure stepped into the dream. It was a little girl, with a white ribbon that tied her blond hair back into a ponytail.

The Doll cocked her head to the side, confused to see a Yharnum child in the Hunter's Dream. Perhaps, what the Doll understood of the nightmare wasn't accurate.

"Miss Louise?" The little girl said, grabbing onto Louise's short skirt. "I thought you said this place was safe?"

Louise growled, showing her teeth. Fur sprouted from Louise's arms, claws growing from her fingernails. Two pointy ears popped out of her hair and a long pink furred tail materialized, whipping back and forth irritably. Her teeth elongated into canines. "Don't worry." Louise said, her feline features stabilizing. "That's my familiar. She'll do as I say, or I'll whip her into submission and then she'll do as I say. How's it going to be Miss Golem?"

* * *

 **This story is going to be more of a series of scenes I think would be fun to write. I'm also looking for ideas and suggestions of plausible future scenes. Most of the story is planned to play out at the Academy and Hunter's Dream, but I can try to fit in one or two boss battles as well. To be truthful, I'm just writing down ideas and concepts that have been dancing around in my head.**

 **If anyone liked the idea of this story and is interested in editing or co-writing this with me, send me a PM.**


	2. Chapter 2

" _When the Doll told me about the god that presided over the dream, I then assumed it must be the thing that cursed me. It, he, denied that he purposely trapped me. But he was the one that reached out to me, seeking to... I'm sorry, I laughed earlier about it but it still makes me feel uncomfortable thinking about his..." Louise stopped talking for several minutes. She seemed to have been deep in thought. After she seemed to have collected her thoughts, she continued as if she hadn't stopped. "Presumptuousness back then."_

* * *

Melody wasn't her real name, but the nice cat lady nicknamed her that anyway, and it was a nice name to be called by. So Melody decided that was who she would be. Named after the music box she had given the pink haired lady. Louise was her name, but Melody wanted to call her Miss Kitty. Louise said absolutely not when Melody tried calling her that the first time. And then Louise hit Melody on the head! The nice cat lady could be violent. Melody blamed all the beast blood Louise was drinking and injecting into her body. She was obviously addicted!

It was strange to think that she would be saved by a hunter turned beast. Louise had insisted that Melody come with her and help bury her parents. Melody didn't blame Louise for killing her father after seeing his beastly form. He had lost his mind, Louise told her, and that despite trying to talk to him he didn't listen. So, Louise blew his legs off with her explosions.

Melody didn't like recalling that moment when Louise told her the story of how her father died. She liked the nice cat lady, and if she could, she'd rather forget that it was Louise that killed her father. She would also rather forget that it was her father that killed her mother.

In the strange place that Louise brought Melody to, she could not fall asleep. Time seemed an ignorable thing, and if she didn't pay attention she would begin to slip back into the nightmare that was Yharnam. Melody spent the time when she was 'alone' decorating the workshop. It was a pretty place, but needed a girl's touch!

Louise and Miss Dolly didn't get along, but they both liked Melody and her artistic touch. Miss Dolly said the god that presided over the dream complained about his workshop being painted pink. That god guy could go get eaten by beasts. Pink was awesome! So after Melody painted the workshop pink, she moved onto the gravestones. All of them depicted epic battles of the nice cat lady killing _nasty_ monsters. Of course, Melody wasn't the best artist at her age, so most of it was stick figures with long hair stabbing bad doggy stick figures. It made Louise smile whenever she returned, and that was what mattered.

Miss Dolly didn't talk much and took lots of naps. Melody wasn't really ever alone, but Miss Dolly said it took a lot of focus to keep Louise's awareness sped up, whatever that was supposed to mean. There was a complicated math formula written out in glowing white paint under the place Miss Dolly liked to stand. Louise was supposed to give the doll lady 'echoes of blood' to power that formula. Again, Melody didn't really understand why or what the point of speeding time up was for. Maybe it was because Miss Dolly was in trouble in Louise's world. She was bad doll!

In the dream, Melody didn't need to eat, but she liked too still. So whenever she got really bored, she'd go harass the little creepy messenger things for some food. They liked her and were nice, but still creepy. They always tried stealing her ribbon too. So they weren't always nice, but a good throttling put them in their place. Melody learned how to choke the messangers from her guardian kitty cat.

On occasion the god guy would whisper to her. He seemed happy that she was alive. Their conversations went along the lines like this.

"Kid, how you're doing?" He would say, but in a more creepy series of images and sensations. He couldn't talk very well, probably all those tentacles that he showed her he had at one point. She didn't like how he looked and asked super politely never to show his face in person to her ever, ever, ever!

"I'm well!" She would reply, thinking of fun things and cuddling Louise when she came back to the Hunter's Dream tired and worn out.

"Nice." He would say, and then go silent.

Their conversations didn't last long. Melody assumed he had godly things to do, and just liked to check up on her. He tried giving her his name one time, but when he did, he forgot what his name was originally! Though, he insisted on a differnet word for mister, something like, _san_? Being a god doesn't sound all that nice if you forget who you were when you were mortal. Sounds terrible.

Louise said she'd like to blow Mr. God apart for trapping her.

He had said it wasn't his fault.

Miss Dolly said it wasn't her fault either.

Melody volunteered that it was her fault Louise was now trapped within the nightmare! Because if it wasn't for Louise, Melody probably would be lunch for a big old nasty pig. So nasty, so very gross.

Everyone agreed that whatever the reason, Melody being saved was a good thing. Miss Dolly didn't think it was possible to bring people into the Hunters Dream. She had been really confused when Melody stepped in. Melody figured Louise didn't really care about rules. It was her nightmare after all, so why couldn't she have some control? It made perfect sense for Melody. Whenever she realized she was dreaming, she tended to have some control over her own dreams.

But this brought up something Melody didn't like to think about. Her existence. Was she a real girl, or just a figment of Louise's imagination? Today, to-hour, this moment, time was hard to keep track of, Melody would find out if she was real or not.

Mr. God gave her a gift, a little bell. So, Melody figured she'd try ringing it. She was pretty bored, and it was a gift from a god. So, maybe it was magical? What could possibly go wrong?

…..

Louise returned to the Hunters Dream grumbling. She'd been killed by damnable dogs again! Big scary monster that hops over a wall? Blast it in the face repeatedly and jump around like she was a cat with her tail on fire. Well, she was rather cat like recently. The beast form came in handy in dodging the swiping attacks a lot of the crazies would use.

Louise hated having to go through that damnable city, but it was the best she could think to do to break free. The Doll wasn't much of a help, why, the stupid thing seemed rather ignorant of how the nightmare actually worked. Apparently, everything that Louise was doing had been done before, or so the Doll thought.

Time in the nightmare outside the Hunter's Dream was reset by the new god. Louise supposed it let her have a chance to save some people. But the only person she managed to save so far from this terrible place was Melody.

It was a blessing to be honest, having saved that girl. Louise looked about, regarding the gaudy pink paint covering the workshop and many of the stones. There were silly doodles of Louise's fights drawn onto the gravestones. Melody had begun hanging up strips of colorful cloth as well. Louise liked the jarring difference between here and the infested nightmare. It was cute and adorable. Enough to make her sick, yet proud of the progress the little girl had made.

The Doll stood in her usual place, head bowed with glowing numbers underneath her. Louise didn't even bother to say hello to the wooden golem. She walked up the stairs into the workshop, hoping to find Melody playing with the messengers at the insight pool. The little girl had taken a liking to those particular messengers.

Instead, Louise found Melody lying down on the altar for inscribing runes. She was asleep, which was strange considering Melody couldn't sleep in the Hunter's Dream.

Worried, Louise walked up to the kid and gently shook her. "Hey, you okay?"

Melody didn't wake or move to Louise's touch. In her small hand though, was a tiny bell with intricately carved tentacles on its surface. A little creepy for a girl to play with, but then again, this whole place tended to be creepy.

Louise picked up the bell and rang it.

She felt a pulling sensation, like that when she left the Hunter's Dream. Gasping, Louise panicked for a moment and held herself in the dream, trying to make sense what she had done. However, if Melody had rang this bell, then wouldn't Louise need to go find her so the girl didn't get hurt?

Without another thought, she let herself be pulled away.

Louise woke up on the Academy lawn. No, it was more like she came to be, suddenly coming into existence in reality, condensed into that spot on the lawn. She was flabbergasted. Louise had been dying to rabid dogs tearing her throat out, and then Melody finds the way out.

Louise was free! She cheered and hopped up and down in excitement. Screw the damn nightmare, she was free!

And then she noticed the red glow emanating off her body. That probably meant something really important.

Glowing red wasn't a good sign. And why did she feel like she was in her beast form? Louise looked at her hands and groaned. Her claws were out, and her forearms were covered in pink fur. Without copious amounts of blood covering her, the pink fur was embarrassing. At least it stayed on her forearms and legs, and didn't cover her body or face. That would be mortifying.

Another odd feeling was how she thought. She felt just a little bit stupid. She had been getting smarter lately, her thoughts quickening to keep up with the fast paced fighting she had to endure. The Doll said it was insight, and Louise would get more insight the further she traversed the nightmare. She noted the tiny difference in her thinking speed, her remaining insight making the connection that it cost insight to escape.

So, perhaps what had happened was only a temporary fix?

Grumbling, Louise figured she could be on a time limit as well. That meant she needed to find Melody and make sure the little Yharnam brat didn't do anything to scare people. If Louise was glowing and in her beastly state, that meant Melody could be glowing red too. And did Melody have a beast state?

The good news was that it was day time, and Louise took a moment to appreciate the sun's warmth. That moment was quickly cut off as someone screamed.

Well, that couldn't be very good. Lots of bad signs that her current state wasn't what she wanted. Louise turned and regarded a boy running away with his familiar at break neck speed.

Good start, scaring her fellow students. At least they wouldn't be harassing her about being a zero. She could appreciate fear. It gave her power over them. It wasn't like she had any friends here anyway.

And if anyone decided to be complete idiot and attack her, Louise was armed with a threaded cane, pistol, and her wand. She doubled checked to see if the wand she was using in her dream had transferred with her, and she was relieved to find it had. So, yes, she was fully armed.

Louise took off at a jog, heading for the closest tower. She pondered over her current state and realized she was like those phantoms that would attack her at times in her journey through the nightmare. So, somehow, she was invading her own world. Perhaps that meant Louise could actually die, and return to the Hunter's Dream?

She was so excited about her plausible immortality that she nearly collided with one of the maids running down the hall.

"Watch it!" Louise yelled, but her voice came out as a feral growl.

The maid, Louise was sure her name was Siesta, gaped at her. "Louise? Oh my, oh, what happened, how? I just left you."

Louise's thinking was faster than a normal person's, so she had a moment to grasp that speaking again might not be the best idea. And Siesta had just left her? Did that mean she knew where Louise's body was?

She rubbed her eyes, getting a headache at the thought of looking at her own body.

"You look, uh, rather strange." The maid said, still gawking at Louise.

Disrespect? Gawking? Stating something Louise was clearly aware of? Coming from a commoner? Insolence! Her normal temperament, noble pride, and especially new beastly frustration all kicked in at once. Louise backhanded the girl across the face, throwing her against the wall.

Siesta cried out, curling up into a ball and begged for mercy.

Louise stood over the maid, furious. She clenched her claws and growled.

Then she realized what she just did. The perspective crashed upon her. The Doll had set some sort of time distorting spell for Louise, so she could get out of the dream faster and return to her normal life. And when she got a reprieve, possibly within hours of summoning the Doll, the first thing Louise did was hurt someone.

Siesta's mouth was bloody, and she looked absolutely terrified. Her cheek was already beginning to swell, and it didn't look like it would heal anytime soon. Perhaps Louise had even broken the girl's jaw? She had the strength of a beast in this form, so it was possible.

Louise fell to her knees in front of Siesta and with a shaking hand, pulled the maid's hand away from her face.

It wasn't so bad, nothing a little _blood_ couldn't fix. Louise fished out a vial and jabbed it into Siesta's thigh. The maid cried out again, and but dared not pull away.

They locked eyes with another and Louise saw the second mistake she had made. Siesta's pupils shivered as her cheek healed. The expression on the girl's face was that of pleasure and bliss. The swelling and bruising that was forming faded to a normal skin tone for the maid. Siesta continued to shiver, and Louise understood that reaction well. In a matter of seconds, the only remaining sign that Siesta was ever hurt was some blood that glossed her lips.

'I'm sorry.' Louise mouthed, blinking tears from her eyes. She stood up, ashamed to have harmed the maid. There was a difference between appropriate punishment for commoners, and outright abuse. She turned away, but didn't leave. She simply didn't want the maid to see her tears is all.

And then that damnable maid decided to grab her tail. Louise meowed as a jolt of electric sensation coursed up her spine. Spinning on her heal and snatching her tail back, she glared again at the girl.

Siesta stared back, without fear, and smiled. Her cheeks were flushed, clearly intoxicated from the injection. "This is a part of what happened to you today, isn't it?" She asked, her pupils continuing to shiver.

"I'm fine!" Louise snapped, though her voice only came out as a feral sound. She let go of her tail and ran away, too embarrassed and emotionally conflicted to deal with that maid at the moment.

She needed to find Melody!

Louise decided to use her nose. She would never admit it to annoying but perhaps the safest of diaries, but she liked her sharper senses the beast form bestowed upon her. Perhaps if she could sniff out the Yharnam brat, she might sideline anymore embarrassing and shameful situations.

There was a whiff of Melody's familiar scent in the air and Louise followed. Between her sharpened mind from insight and her new senses, she sprinted through the halls. Students gasped and exclaimed, but Louise ignored them. She was on the hunt for her prey, and once she found the little girl she'd tear her to pieces and eat her bit by bit. Or, well, hang her up by her toes from the rafters of the workshop.

Louise tried killing herself in the hunter's dream once, just to see if it would release her. She had rematerialized in the usual place of entering the dream. So if Melody was now connected to the dream like Louise was, perhaps a little death could do the girl some good?

Louise skidded to a stop and shook her head. What was she thinking? Wasn't the point of finding Melody so the kid didn't get hurt?

Frustrated, she put her hands on her hips and decided to think. Where would Melody even go if she were to 'invade' the Academy? Perhaps to see Louise's body?

Louise heard a noise, her ear flicking at the sound. She slowly turned to find Siesta again looking at her with bemusement. She had Professor Colbert with her now and the Headmaster with his secretary, Miss Longueville.

Behind Miss Longueville was a red glow. Louise narrowed her eyes and tapped her foot. Melody's head popped out behind Miss Longueville, holding onto the secretary's dress. "Hi." The Yharnam brat said, voice timid. "I like your world, it's bright and sunny."

Louise whipped her tail irritably. The little girl was perfectly human and able to talk without sounding like a rabid beast. Figuring the best way of communication was through gestures, Louise posed with her hands up to her face in a scratching motion.

Then, she meowed.

On purpose of course! If Louise tried to say anything it would likely come off as unfeminine growling. This way, she could play it off as acting cute.

Melody looked up to the adults. "Miss Kitty says she can't talk. It's the beast blood, it does weird stuff to people. Like, make them go crazy."

Louise was going to hang that girl up by her toes from the workshop rafters!

* * *

 **Yes, I basically muzzled Louise's loud mouth.**


	3. Chapter 3

" _What I learned in the nightmare scared me. I was convinced that I needed to keep it all a secret. The less people knew, the better. Of course, how I felt and thought about the knowledge from the nightmare didn't matter in the end. One person can keep a secret, a dozen maybe, but there were a lot of people in that nightmare I saved. Why wouldn't they talk about their experiences, their magic, their world? They're refugees. I couldn't expect them to forget where they came from. In the beginning, I didn't think I could save so many."_

* * *

Louise stared at her own body. It was a strange experience, different than looking at herself in a mirror. This was clearly herself in front of her, and when she touched her sleeping form, she could feel that touch on her spiritual self. She tried opening one of the body's closed eyes and found it a rather uncomfortable feeling.

Stepping away from herself, Louise regarded the other people in the room. The nurse who was on duty had been politely dismissed. So it was just her, her body, the school-faculty, a little Yharnam girl, and a wood golem. Plus one maid, but Siesta wasn't important.

"I have some questions." The Headmaster started, sitting in a chair Miss Longueville placed for him.

Melody sat in a chair next to the Doll. Louise figured she should give the Doll a name or something, because referring to it as just a 'doll' was weird. Melody was a little more creative in how she addressed the Doll, and it sounded better. Miss Dolly, it was almost mocking. Too bad the stupid golem didn't seem to mind any insults thrown at her. Why, sometimes she would clap at Louise's more creative and passionate insults. Stupid familiar had a strange sense of humor.

Professor Colbert stood next to Louise, having joined her in inspecting her physical body. Louise trusted that the professor wouldn't ask any uncomfortable questions, like what it was like to have a tail. Though, she did find it odd how quiet he seemed. She wasn't sure if she heard him speak once on the way to the infirmary.

Louise was given a note pad and pen to communicate with, so she could join in the conversation if she needed to. She hoped her familiar would do most of the talking.

Instead she got Melody as a spokesperson. "I have answers Mr. Osmond. What would you like to know? I could talk about home for hours. And the nightly hunts, I could talk about those if you want. But that's scary stuff. Terrible nights, those." She played with her dress, rubbing the yellow fabric between her fingers nervously.

"There's a lot to talk about, young'un." The Headmaster stroked his beard and looked at Louise. He snapped his fingers and turned in his chair, addressing his secretary. "Miss Longueville, go get some catnip!"

"Excuse me?" She said, clearly taken off guard by the demand.

"Catnip, I want to know what Miss Vallière thinks of catnip and what it might do to her." The old pervert started rubbing his hands together and Louise was ready to leave right then and there. Let the stupid Doll do all the talking. Louise would take Melody and be on her way.

Miss Longueville opened her mouth, but her protest came out as a tired sigh. "Very well." She turned and left, lethargically opening and closing the door behind her.

The Headmaster nodded and looked to Professor Colbert next. "Make sure she actually gets that catnip. I don't want her hanging out the door thinking she can pretend she didn't find any. Ooh, and get the really strong stuff, for large cats."

There was a loud cough from the other side of the door and both men looked at it expectantly.

Professor Colbert nodded, seeming to understand some implication that Louise didn't, despite her insight. He stood and followed after Miss Longueville, giving a polite goodbye on his way out. Before closing the door, he looked at Louise worry or pity. Before she could make sense of his face, he closed the door.

The Doll clapped her hands. Everyone looked at her, and she stopped. "You wanted them gone, so you sent them on a quest for herbs to intoxicate the young hunter." Really, the Doll was impressed by the strangest of things.

Louise wanted to protest any part involving catnip and tell her familiar that Old Osmond was nothing more than a pervert.

"I did want them gone." He said, confirming the Doll's reasoning. "You see Miss Dolly, as your young friend here calls you. I am the headmaster of a magic academy and I am very fascinated by the magic that is involved with your master."

Louise quickly scribbled onto her writing pad. She stepped forward and showed it to the Headmaster. 'I'm cursed by blasphemous magic that is very dangerous and bad!' her handwriting said. A sound argument. Of course if she could speak, she'd have gone into lecture mode and explained in depth how blasphemous the involved magic was. But thankfully, she couldn't speak. The less the Headmaster knew, the better.

"I understand this, Miss Vallière, but many subjects of magic are dangerous. Under the right environment and supervision, magic can be safely studied." The Headmaster replied as if he had expected Louise to protest. And why wouldn't he, she was the one with an issue with the foreign magic. To him, only a short amount of time had passed. He didn't understand that to Louise, what must have been the equivalent of days have passed.

Louise scribbled on her bored again, but Siesta spoke up next. Louise actually forgot that the maid was there for a minute.

"Should I be here for this, uhm, conversation?" She asked, stepping closer to the door.

The Headmaster eyed Siesta, and Louise was disgusted to note how his eyes roamed over the maid's body. "No, no, stay. You mentioned Miss Vallière gave you some kind of injected potion? What did it do exactly?"

Louise leveled her gaze with Siesta, sending a silent message to keep her trap shut about her getting hurt. Louise would gladly make up for her mistakes for the maid, she felt as if she owed the commoner some sort of accommodation for her abuse. She did not like feeling that she owed the girl anything. She would find a way to revoke the maid's job if Siesta got her in trouble.

"Uhm, I'm sorry, but I really have to go sir. P-please don't be mad." Before the Headmaster could keep her longer, Siesta turned and left the room. The door slammed behind her, hurting Louise's ears.

She rubbed her sensitive ears but nodded, appreciating that the maid understood her killing intent. She'd have to reward that girl later perhaps. A commoner that could keep student secrets was a valuable asset to have. She didn't worry about Siesta getting in trouble, because the Headmaster was a pervert and biased for pretty girls. He'd keep Siesta even if she spilled his tea and burned his lap or something.

Deciding that the distractions were all taken care of, Louise showed the Headmaster what she wrote as response to his earlier statement. 'So that you will be aware, the Doll has cast some sort of time distorting spell on me when I sleep. A lot of time has passed for me recently.'

The Headmaster clapped his hands. "Fascinating! Do you understand what applications that could have for scholarship?"

"It is exhausting." The Doll said. "Men do not have the will to bend awareness so."

The Headmaster hummed, clearly debating on what he might say in response to that. A few seconds of humming and then he said, "So would elves be able to?"

Louise stiffened at the mentioned of the dreaded creatures that plagued her world. She heard a lot about elves, and had no confidence in facing one in battle. Although, she hoped after what she'd been through recently, she could at least stall an elf's attack.

The Doll cocked her head to the side. "Elves?"

Did Louise forget to mention elves to the Doll? Perhaps she should start talking to her familiar more between hunts in the nightmare.

Melody turned in her chair sharply. "Elves, Miss Dolly, they're supposed to be evil and nasty monsters with pointy ears. Miss Kitty, uh, Louise says so."

The Headmaster waved his hand. "Ah, never mind ladies. Surely we can safely study some of the magic that has affected Miss Vallière. Maybe not time, but what about this nightmare?"

"You wish to understand?" The Doll said. "Many have done so before, and all have turned to beasts. They lose their souls to the nightmare. It is a Hunter's task to bring relief to those lost spirits, and put them to rest."

That wasn't what the Doll told Louise when they first met 'in person.' It seemed she could lie, or perhaps bend the truth. Maybe she said that to put a better light on what really happened on the night of the hunt and Hunters themselves?

Melody fidgeted in her chair and her face scrunched up. She sniffled. There was that switch, from cheerful little girl to pained and hurt child. "Yeah, maybe you should listen to Miss Louise. My daddy, uhm, he died because of the blood." A few tears leaked from her eyes.

Louise was proud to see Melody trying desperately to control her small emotional break.

The Headmaster stroked his beard. "Child, I won't pry any more than I need to then. But Miss Vallière is still cursed. Tell me about this time spell, what was the purpose? Why bring it up?"

Louise scribbled on her note pad. The Headmaster waited patiently for her to write out her response and no one else spoke. When she finished, she turned it over for the Headmaster. 'In the short time between now and after the Doll brought my body to this room, what must be days have past for me. I am stuck in a nightmare, a place full of monsters that kill me over and over. What has happened to me is a curse. I think it must be a test of faith. I'm working hard to break free. Once I do, I'm burying any knowledge I have of this entire event. I would like to lose all memory of what's happened."

She did not try to explain her plans to try and save those that she could. She wasn't even sure if she could bring people out of the nightmare. Melody right now was just a phantom, that much Louise could figure out. When she found a way to fix herself, living in her own body, what would happen to those whose bodies were elsewhere? It was all very confusing to try and wrap her head around.

"Louise, child." The Headmaster took the note pad from Louise's hand and she made grabbing motions for him to return it. He didn't. "I understand that you are scared of what's happened. You're right that unknown magic is very dangerous. But we will need to understand it to an extent in order to help you."

She balled her hands into fists and whipped her tail. She didn't need help from the outside. What if the curse took more people? There was so much she didn't know, and didn't want to know. The best thing she could do was hunt and kill beasts. Sometimes the simplest answer was the right one.

Obvious the Headmaster didn't agree with such thoughts. He would insist and prod to study what was happening despite Louise's protests. That meant there needed to be a compromise. Louise could think up a good compromise.

The Doll spoke up. "Louise is hurt and yearns for peace. The church of your country might threaten her if they know of what has befallen her. Ease her heart, give her pleas thought."

Louise hated her familiar. The golem took a few things she said in the Hunter's Dream about her home, and picked out her feelings like reading a book. Louise had faith, but also knew that the church could misunderstand. Why, what the Headmaster was proposing was in itself blasphemous. Studying the nightmare and its terrible magic? But she wouldn't argue with the wizened scholar. He was the Headmaster after all. It was in his nature to seek knowledge.

Melody sniffled again and said, "Maybe they could help? If they're a church, they probably know lots of secrets." She nodded, wiping at her nose that had gone runny from her short emotional break.

The Headmaster patted Louise on the head. She felt his touch caressing her ears and suspected he just wanted to touch them. The lewd geezer. She didn't shy away though, because it did feel comforting, like a hug. Maybe his intent was genuine?

"Young lady, you have nothing to fear from the church. I can contact the right people and give my testimony that you are not to blame and are the victim. They might send someone to exorcise you for your benefit. It could work."

Louise shied away from his head patting, eyeing him warily. She wasn't so sure. What would her mother think of all this? Her sisters? Founder, what would the princess think once she got wind? Dying was a powerful distraction from thoughts of her social standing.

"If you would like." The Headmaster said. "We could try downplaying your circumstance. Something is wrong with you, but not something of an evil nature."

Louise nodded, she liked how that sounded.

"You could go to class, or your body could."

Louise wasn't sure how that might work. Hadn't the Doll said something about her sleep talking when her body wasn't forced to be calm? She did yell a lot when she fought the monsters of Yharnam. She would need to be in the Hunter's Dream during those periods, the speed of her perception returned to normal for a time.

"While you act your part to downplay this, we can work together to fix this curse of yours. You'll try to solve it from within the nightmare you speak of, and I'll use outside resources to help."

It sounded like a good compromise. But Louise needed insurance that the Headmaster's wild curiosity didn't bring to light anything catastrophic. She turned to her familiar and spoke aloud, voice coming out as feral growling sounds. "Doll, I want you to keep my body safe and keep people from asking too many questions. Can you do that?"

"Young hunter, I am well versed in vagueness." The Doll seemed to smile. It was hard to see, what with her skin being polished wood and all. But her lips did pull up at their edges. It was good enough to satisfy Louise.

Melody raised her hand and Louise turned her attention to the girl. "Does this mean we can't leave the dream again? I like it out here." She asked, innocent to the cost.

Where did the child even get the insight to come out anyway? If it cost Louise some of her intelligence, what did that mean for Melody's still maturing mind? "Melody, the messengers at that pond you visit a lot, how many eyes do they say you have?"

"What? It costs eyes to escape!" Melody patted her face, touching her closed eyelids. "I still have two eyeballs, see, what are you going on about you crazy kitty?"

Louise shook her head. "No, I mean, it costs what those messengers want to come here. Didn't you realize that?"

Melody put a finger to her lips. She seemed cuter as she pondered, white ribbon in her blond hair, the long sleeve of her dress fall down to her elbow. Louise didn't want this child to be hurt. No more than she had already at least.

The Headmaster handed Louise her note pad back. "Might I say, it's strange to hear one side of a conversation in growls. Would you mind if I try a translate spell on you?"

Louise hadn't thought about that. She figured her speech was just getting garbled by her beastly form. More of her insides changed than outside appearance after all. But, if a translate spell worked, she was all for it. She nodded, hoping for the best.

He fished around for his wand on his person for a moment, the motions seeming rather silly to see, and pulled the wand out. With a quick chant, he cast the spell.

"Did it work?" Louise asked, but what came to her ears were more growls. Damn.

The Headmaster sighed. "Oh well, couldn't have hurt to try."

Unless it was Louise attempting the spell. Then it might have just blown the person across the room and into a wall.

"Ah-ha!" Melody snapped her fingers. "Yes, I know what you're talking about. The insight. I got lots of that. Mr. God gave it to me, sense we talk lots."

"Mr. God?" The Headmaster asked.

"Nothing important!" Louise snapped, and then growled at her stupidity. She took her note pad and wrote out in big letters. 'Don't ask!'

As she wrote, the Doll said. "A Great One."

The Headmaster regarded the Doll with a calculating gaze. He glanced to Louise and smiled. "I won't pry." He said wryly. There was a twinkle in his eye, as if he had won some sort of prize.

She glared at him, feeling heat rise into her cheeks. She could rip his throat out right now and have the problem of his damnable questions resolved right then. It frustrated her even further when she considered that last line of thought.

The door to the infirmary opened and Professor Colbert, Miss Longueville, and Kirche of all people, walked in. The sudden return of others distracted Louise from her frustration.

She jumped when she saw her longtime nemesis. Panicked to be seen in her beastly form by Kirche, Louise turned left and right looking for a place to hide and then dove under the bed. If she hadn't run away and hide, she was afraid she'd attack Kirche. That would be bad.

Kirche laughed. "Louise, was that you? What are you wearing?"

"Shut up, go away!" Louise yelled back, and then bit her tongue after hearing her own voice come out as growling noises.

"Shhesh, you don't have to snarl at me. What's your issue Louise, I'm hearing all sorts of rumors of you having lost your mind when you woke up from that fit of yours. Come on out and face me like a proud noble woman!"

"Wow, you have big boobs. I bet you get lots of back pains." Melody said, no, mocked.

Louise couldn't see what was happening, but she liked to imagine Kirche regarding the red glowing girl with a confused expression. Slowly, she peeked out from under her bed, and was pleased to note that her familiar placed a blanket over Louise's physical body. Hopefully Kirche didn't take notice that Louise was in two places at once in the same room.

"And who are you cutie?" Kirche said, walking over to Melody.

"I'm Louise's friend, Melody. You walk in and start saying rude stuff. Leave us alone, you're not invited to our secret party."

Kirche laughed.

"Miss Zerbst, we were having a private discussion." The Headmaster said. "Oh, Miss Longueville you got the catnip! Sprinkle it around the bed. She won't be able to resist."

"Catnip? Old man, what are you talking about? Oh, you actually have catnip."

"I'm only doing as I'm told." Miss Longueville said as Louise noticed her walk to the bed and began sprinkling the catnip in front of Louise's face.

The smell hit her like a beast. She groaned and held herself back, fighting the strange urge lick it off the floor. Louise hid under the bed again, fighting desires she did not like.

"Hey!" Melody protested. Louise quickly thought that the little girl would rescue her from the humiliation of eating something she didn't want, but really, really wanted. "Put it on a plate or something, my cat ate from a plate. Don't be barbaric." Louise lost faith in the girl.

"You know." Kirche said, crouching down and trying to peer under the bed.

Louise growled. She would scratch that mangy mutt if the Germanian got any closer.

"I was wondering if I still had a rival to contend with or if that rival really lost her wits and would be hauled off to a hospital. But now," Kirche peeked and blinked as if something was in her eye. "I see Louise has turned into a beast." She smiled an insufferable grin.

"Ah yes," the Headmaster said, "It's a new treatment spell for Louise's sudden condition. Do you see the red glow? That's the magic at work there, highly advanced. Nothing that's taught in school."

"What about the little girl? She's glowing red, and doesn't have Louise's feline features." Kirche said and then giggled. Someone handed Kirche a plate and the damnable woman then slid the plate under the bed right in front of Louise's face.

She couldn't resist. She grabbed the plate and licked at the catnip. It tasted so good!

"I'm sick too, Louise just has a worse, uh, affliction. My mum says daddy had the same affliction, he would forget us sometimes."

Louise couldn't care to be annoyed by Melody's words. She licked, and slapped her tongue, and licked some more until the plate was clean. And then it started to hit her and she rolled to the other side of the bed, ignoring everyone else in the room. Finding her tail, Louise started to play with it and pull. Meows escaped her, against her better judgement.

Her rational side noted how the catnip seemed to act abnormally quick. Was it because she was a phantom?

"So was your dad an animal like that?" Kirche said. Louise didn't know if she was still being watched and didn't rightly care at the moment. "Melody, are you okay?"

"Yes, my daddy died because of the affliction." Melody said. Her voice was shaky.

"Oh."

"It's a very serious disease." The Headmaster said. "Not communicable of course. It's caused by complicated errors in magic."

Louise started feeling really warm as she played with her tail. It was fun. Dying by dogs constantly was a terrible fate. But in the moment, she didn't care about herself, or the world, or anything else. Just her, and her tail, and the cozy cramped space of being underneath the infirmary bed. The rational part of her mind listened to the conversation, keeping a split ear out for danger. None of them sounded like they wanted to attack her, so she continued to play.

"Is, Louise going to be okay?" Kirche almost sounded worried. Louise might have thought that strange moments ago, but right now she found that if she nibbled her tail, it felt nice! And why was she wearing shoes? Louise kicked those shoes off, and wiggled her clawed toes. That was a relief.

"We're not sure. But best way to treat it is to keep the patient comfortable and within a safe and familiar environment. That means, she'll still be going to school here."

"Acting like that?"

"That state," The Doll said, joining in the cover up, "Is temporary. That's Louise's detached spirit. Her phantom form."

"Wait, what?" Kirche sounded really confused now.

Louise would have been confused too if she were in Kirche's place. However, Louise didn't bother with thinking about complicated stuff like different perspectives. She currently busied herself by undressing. Stupid stuffy clothes.

"Very complicated magic." The Headmaster added.

"So, the person under this blanket here." There was a rustling of sheets and then a loud gasp. "Woah!" Kirche exclaimed, obviously seeing Louise's physical body.

Louise crawled out of from underneath the bed, half naked in her undergarments, and looked up to see Kirche's face. It should be priceless. And it was!

Then her high stopped. Like a dying beast that crashed to the ground and burst in a fountain of blood. The magic of catnip came and went, fast and then gone.

Kirche looked back at Louise, who was on her hands and knees halfway under a bed. Louise was suddenly aware of not only her rival's eyes upon her, but the male occupants of the room. She mewled, crawling back under the bed and curled up to die.

Thankfully, it seemed she _could_ die from embarrassment. There was a pulling sensation that called for her to depart the living world. She gladly let herself be taken, fading into nothing.

Louise's body gasped a moment later and rolled on its side, curling into a ball. "Nooo…"

The Doll placed a hand on Louise, calming her body, and saving her from further embarrassment.

* * *

 **This was an exercise for me in juggling more than two characters in a conversation. How did I do?**


	4. Chapter 3 dot 5

**A/N The Following takes place between chapter 3 and 4.**

…..

Siesta yelped, she stumbled and slipped when someone grabbed her butt. She had a flash image of her losing her dignity in one moment in a clumsy heap on the floor. Such fast thoughts were needless as firm hands caught her from falling to the ground. She looked up and saw the Headmaster's assistant, Miss Longueville.

"Thank you." Siesta said with a blush burning her cheeks. She glanced behind Miss Longueville at the Headmaster himself. He stood a few paces away with a silly grin plastered on his old face. She wished for just a moment that she could slap him. Only a moment, her survival instincts banishing those ideas from her mind.

"You're quite welcome, Miss. The Headmaster here has a request of you. If you don't mind. But first, I want you to know, you can say no. And I'll get him later for that discretion."

Siesta studied the woman before her. The assistant to the Headmaster was rumored to be as violent as Louise at times. One servant said he saw Miss Longueville beat the Headmaster up, kicking him in the rear repeatedly. It was also filled with sexual implications, such as Miss Longueville being a secret dominatrix and the Headmaster was a pervert because of her. Of course, that was one of the wilder rumors that the staff held. But whatever might be true, Siesta was confident she wouldn't really be able to say no. They'd guilt her into it or imply threats.

"Ahem." The Headmaster said, probably finding Siesta's silent response as an indication for him to move forward with his request of her. "As you are well aware of, one of our students has befallen a terrible illness. We will be working to the best of our ability to comfort Miss Vallière. Her familiar seems to be an honest creature, and says she was made to care for humans."

Siesta turned fully and faced the old man. She held her hands in front of her chest, feigning concern for Louise. Truthfully, she was still a little shaken from having her jaw broken momentarily. She silently prayed that the Headmaster wasn't about to assign her to helping the strange creature Louise summoned to help take care of the noble girl.

It seemed her foresight was mostly correct.

"While we were having an important discussion, which I was inclined to have you listen in on before you escape, I mean, you had duties to attend." The Headmaster had no shame it seemed, pointing out her escape so blatantly. "Our discussion came to an end when another student followed my assistant here and Professor Colbert back to the infirmary room, and proceeded to harass Miss Vallière. This brought an end to our discussion." He actually seemed upset, despite Siesta being aware of his request for cat-nip to feed to Louise. The discussion would have been over anyway, and he would have been the one harassing Louise instead of another student. Why would Louise even eat cat-nip? Something weird happened to her, but surely nothing so strange as her inclinations shifting to that of a house cat.

"Well, anyway. We determined, the professor, Miss Longueville, and I, that Miss Zerbst should be disciplined for her rude actions. It could be said, that this was her finale straw. I know you must be connected to the rumor mills, and she made herself quite the reputation. Very-" the Headmaster rubbed his beard, a leering gaze crossing his aged eyes, "-Reputable."

Siesta was confused. What did any of this have to do with her? She asked.

The headmaster coughed into his hand and replied. "Well, young miss. We decided that Miss Zerbst should be made to stand a disciplinary watch of some sort. For the next several weeks, I would like you to train Miss Zerbst as a maid. If you don't find the prospect pleasing, you can dump her with the kitchen staff. This is to build her character, and keep her busy. If she has time to daddle with young men, she can use that time to improve herself instead. I will say, you'll be paid for your extra services as a trainer, and your job secured here."

Siesta was secretly getting excited about the idea of bossing a noble around until those last few words. Her job secured? What did that mean? A thought crossed her mind and she remembered a few weeks ago catching the attention of Count Mott. He made it very clear what he wanted from her by inviting her to work at his mansion.

This was the reason why she knew she couldn't have said no if she wanted to. Nobles would just trade commoner employees like they were slaves at times. It terrified Siesta to think she might be taken away from the Academy. She liked it here, despite the perverted old man as a head of the school, the abusive students, the smelly familiars, and the poor living standards. Despite all of that, she liked listening in on magic classes, making the occasional conversation with a student, fantasizing about stealing one of their wands and being able to cast her own magic. Most importantly, it was safe, it could be enjoyable, and it paid her enough money to send back home and help her family.

Her standing in life, her comfort, possibly her very chastity, was at stake by this request. Putting on a smile, Siesta beamed at the Headmaster. "Of course I would love to help." Not wanting to show too much eagerness, though she was tempted, she downplayed herself some. "I'm not sure I'll be able to do it though. I'm very busy." She actually had quite a bit of free time during her working hours. It was funny how nobles just looked over commoners sometimes, like they were invisible or something.

There was one time she had a rip in her dress and not a single male student noticed her scurrying through the halls back to her room so she could sow it. Point being, she didn't want to have added work on top of her regular work.

"Oh, of course! You're relieved of your old position. Your new position will be to train Miss Zerbst, keep away her suitors, and help that doll lady out as Miss Vallière's personal servant."

"Wait, what were those last two things about?"

"Miss, it'll be apart of training Miss Zerbst. After all, she has been one of the leading causes of Miss Vallière's stress. You should sympathize with being victim to bullying, I should say. Sometimes commoners aren't treated well enough." The Headmaster seemed to look past Siesta's shoulder, maybe looking at Miss Longueville. "By assigning you to Miss Vallière as her personal servant, you will have a fine raise in your paycheck and Miss Zerbst will be forced to sympathize with her 'rival.'" He said the last word with a hint of disgust. It seemed, despite his jolly character, there were some lines that shouldn't be crossed. And Kirche had crossed that line finally. An oddity considering everything she's gotten away with.

Did the Headmaster blame Kirche partially for what happened to Louise? Siesta wasn't going to ask that question. It wasn't her place. It didn't even matter.

"I'll do it. I'll make those two friends when I'm through with them, sir!" She stood at attention and bowed. Hoping to end the conversation she straightened and turned to leave.

"W-wait!" The Headmaster stuttered and Miss Longueville put a hand on Siesta's shoulder, giving her a dangerous smile that commanded her, 'stay.'

Siesta glanced over her shoulder and tried her cutest and most innocent squeak. "Eeh? Yes." That was it, perfectly done. She could be a shy girl, but she was a confident girl too, and knew how to use her shyness.

"You'll be rooming with Miss Zerbst too!"

"Oh." Siesta paled at the thought of actually needing to fight off Kirche's suitors so she could get proper rest.

"That is, she'll be sleeping with you and the rest of the staff for the foreseeable future."

Siesta paled further. This was going to be a disaster.

…..

It wasn't so bad. Kirche had her flaming lizard familiar and a few belongings, but the woman didn't bring much else into the room with her. The other staff wearily stayed quiet that night. The normal bedtime gossip was no where to be heard. Kirche didn't seem like she intended to talk to anyone that night, instead opting to go straight to bed. Siesta couldn't blame a cold attitude at the start, being thrown down to her lowly level in the school's living standards.

The next day, Kirche surprisingly helped out with breakfast, keeping quiet and mostly polite. She would nod and mutter a few words in response to something Siesta showed her. Honestly, it was almost unnerving how her personality seemed to flip. Siesta kept reminding herself that this was the best possible response from Kirche to have as her punishment.

There were quite a few men who would walk up to the noble turned part-time maid, asking for a moment of privacy. No, more like insisting. Kirche turned away every male student that tried approaching her, and a few staff members who thought they might get lucky instead. Sometimes she didn't even bother to reply to them, opting to ignore their requests. For those that wanted to cause a scene, Kirche's lizard singed their fine cloths and hair.

Siesta had expected chaos, arguments, and threats. What she got instead was a young woman who seemed deep in thought throughout the whole day. While all the other second years bonded with their newly summoned familiars, Kirche was one of two who didn't join the tea party out on the lawn. She helped Siesta with serving the students their tea and cakes, ignoring any and all pleas for her to explain what she was doing, or requests to her bed.

Louise was the second, second year not to join the tea party. In her defense, she had been seen being fed by her familiar at breakfast and was taken for a walk around the academy to keep her body strong. It was rumored that the Doll held Louise's hand all the time, pulling the young mage here and there. Who knew where Louise's soul was currently, but Siesta knew that Louise could come out and haunt the academy at any time.

Strange exciting new rumors were already running rampant this morning. Between Kirche and Louise, the school was a buzz of wild stories and theories.

There was even a bit of drama at the tea party.

Siesta had watched Kirche deliver a cake to Guiche. A scene was made and Guiche was turned into a laughing stock. He seemed like he wanted to blame someone else for his failure in wooing two women at once. The closest person he could blame, the one who very surprisingly called him out on his two timing, was Kirche herself. Siesta was impressed with the uncaring expression Kirche had given Guiche when he looked like he wanted to fight her. It was enough to quell his anger, and he had stomped off. Siesta made sure to put a lot of distance between the boy and her for the rest of that day.

But there was a serious question that needed to be asked now. Who was this alien and where did they hide Kirche's body? Siesta decided enough of enough and needed to get down to the bottom of the Germanian's strange behavior.

That evening, she invited Kirche out for a walk. The noble agreed, so long as her friend Tabitha could join them. Siesta knew that Tabitha was the quietest person in the whole academy. Even Louise in her cursed state could often be heard suddenly screaming death threats at random points during that day. Nothing too out of the ordinary there. Everyone avoided Louise and her familiar, scared that they might be suddenly attacked by either of the two. Again, nothing out of the ordinary considering Louise's known temper. What was out of the ordinary was Louise causing less of a mess. Though, she was stirring up the rumor mills like crazy. So Siesta, despite having been injured, then healed by Louise, was content by the situation.

The moons lit the night and Siesta led Kirche and Tabitha to a fountain. She sat at its edge and dipped her fingers into the water, appreciating the cold touch.

"You wanted to speak, maid?" Kirche said, voice formal.

Siesta looked to Tabitha and back to Kirche. "Yes." She said, summoning her bravery. "You've been acting weird. It's a little scary, and not what I expected."

"Is this a bad thing?" Kirche said, her voice holding a hint of… panic?

"Noo." Siesta said, studying Kirche. The maid outfit that was given to the noble was tailored to cover her normally half exposed assets. It was almost strange not seeing a massive line of cleavage and smooth brown skin when Siesta spoke to Kirche. "I'm worried. I'm supposed to be teaching you how to be honest or something. I'd hate to lose my job because you suddenly started acting too differently. It might look like I did something to you!" Siesta did not want to be accused of any crimes she hadn't done.

Tabitha looked up from her book for a moment, eying Siesta, and then continued to read.

"I was told that if I don't straighten up right away, there would be consequences." Kirche sighed and sat next to Siesta by the fountain's edge. "We don't really know each other you and I. But we're both in a tough spot here. You said you don't want to lose your job because of me? Well, I don't to be expelled."

"Expelled?" Siesta was shocked. She understood that Kirche stepped over some kind of line finally. What exactly did she do? Being expelled was an extreme consequence.

Kirche seemed to have read the rest of Siesta's unspoken question. "The Headmaster told me that by pursuing to harass Louise when she was ill, that it was like kicking a downed opponent who didn't know they were still in a fight. He called it shameful. I could probably let myself get angry that he was picking on her too but I would fall into more trouble. Hell, I thought I was joining in on the fun in that room." She shook her head, her face falling to a tired expression before smiling. "I think he planned to lecture me about 'bullying' for a while now. Ha!"

Siesta frowned. If she remembered correctly Louise was the center of attention from the rest of the students because every spell the girl cast blew up. People were often bruised and beaten by those explosions. They left a mess that was always a pain to clean up after. Louise was like a tiny bundle of trouble, wrapped up in a petite girl. Siesta didn't blame the other students, or Kirche, for not being Louise's friend and even some bullying. Although, she did remember some instances where their retaliation tended to go a little far.

One time Siesta had spotted Louise being kicked out of the public student bath, saying no one wanted her there in with them. It was quite literally being thrown out on her butt. Naked too. Louise had to scramble back into the changing room, but a few of the staff had seen her. That was what, two months ago? Siesta frowned, trying to recall anything else that was extreme.

Kirche poked Siesta. "Hey, don't just make grumpy faces and look at your feet. You're the one who wanted to talk."

"Sorry." Siesta said. She blushed realizing the sort of thoughts she was trying to sort through with Kirche right there. She wasn't trying to damn Kirche in her mind or anything. "But you do have to admit, Louise has been bullied a little."

"She's a Zero!" Kirche snapped, but her anger washed away as fast as it had come. "I mean, she was. She summoned something, that living doll of hers and now, now she's dying."

"Dying?" Siesta paled at the thought. What had the Doll thing done to Louise? "Is it really because of her familiar? Like the rumors say?" Was the Doll telling the truth, that she was innocent?

"No, I don't think that's the case. I talked with the Doll, she's too sincere to have hurt anyone without a reason. Even when she pulled a sword out of the air itself, it seemed she only had Louise's well being in mind." The Germanian sighed. "Actually, it's a little messed up in a sick way of thinking. Louise finally achieves something, she summons a living wood golem with unique magic and it can talk. That could have been amazing. She might have made some kind of name for herself." Kirche grinned. "Maybe she would have become a worthy rival."

"You're a very strange woman, Miss Zerbst." Siesta said, and then glanced to Tabitha. The blue haired girl hadn't said anything during the whole conversation. Always reading books. Kirche befriended someone like that. "Maybe you've been coming at this rival thing the wrong way." Siesta voiced her thoughts out loud without giving them any consideration. The mood of their conversation was pulling her out and into the open. It was comfortable, and Siesta liked that she was having this conversation, despite the heavy topic. She was glad to have Kirche's company. The noble was surprisingly mature in a jovial sort of way.

"You see," Siesta continued her reasoning. "I like to compete too. The other maids say I'm one of the best at our job. I try to serve with a smile and keep a friendly air about me. I don't know if you students ever noticed how hard we work for your approval, but we do, I try my best. I, uh, I do what I can to my fullest, and those on my level of ability, yeah that sounds right, ability, they notice it."

"That's nice and all, but how does your hardwork compare to me or Louise?" Kirche seemed a little lost by the words.

"Well, you're a strong noble from another country right? It's something like that. Louise is a noble who everyone thought couldn't do magic, or always failed at it. You can. So you might not see how hard Louise works, because you're focused on her most obvious failures." Siesta racked her brain for things that she had heard students say about familiars and magic. "The familiar you summon is supposed to reflect the mage right? So, Tabitha, she summoned a dragon and that means she's a powerful mage. Wind affinity right?"

Tabitha nodded.

"So she's probably really strong. You're strong right?" Siesta blushed at how lame she was beginning to sound.

Tabitha nodded again.

Getting that girl into the conversation was difficult. Siesta decided to stop trying. "Well, if Louise summoned that Doll with strange magic, doesn't that mean Louise has strange magic too? Maybe you're trying to compete with someone who simply can't play the same game everyone else is born to."

Kirche nodded, her face returning to that thoughtful expression she had all day. "Yeah, I'd say so. Perhaps that could be it. Maybe she's part elf or something."

Siesta gasped. To even joke about such a thing!

"No, no, nature magic doesn't work like that, I think." Kirche said. "Not like the kind that the Doll has. She pulled a sword out of thin air, and then put it back! That magic is something else entirely. The Headmaster is using some kind of special treatment for Louise, but I ain't buying that. Did you see Louise's spirit running around yesterday?"

"Yes." Siesta remembered getting her jaw broken by a half animal Louise. And then that wonderful drug Louise shoved into her leg. She wanted more of whatever that was. Once she started thinking back on the drunken feeling of warmth, it was hard to side track her mind. Luckily, she was in a conversation, and Kirche was saying something.

"...Headmaster says it's apart of her treatment, separating her soul from her body or some such none sense. No, I think it's the Doll's magic. Maybe it is apart of Louise's treatment, but I've never heard of red glowing people before yesterday."

"There was that little girl. She had a red glow about her too." Siesta said. She was a little excited to be having such an in depth conversation about magic with a noble. Most mages didn't bother talking about magic with commoners since commoners couldn't use it. 'Commoners won't understand anything,' those nobles would say.

"Yeah, she's sick too. I don't know where her body is, but that was her spirit, or phantom?"

"Oh, that means the little girl could die, right?" Siesta hadn't talked with the foreign child much, but she seemed like a cute kid.

"Says her daddy died from the same thing." Kirche shook her head. "The Headmaster wasn't telling me something. I'm going to find out what's really going on. That's why I'm trying my best with this 'punishment.'" She laughed and put a hand onto Siesta's shoulder. "How about you and me get to know that Doll some? They can't keep what's actually happening a secret, it's too big."

Siesta figured she would be talking with the Doll sooner or later, considering her new position as Louise's servant. No, perhaps caretaker would be a better word for her new duty. If she was brave enough to sit a noble down for a heart to heart talk about why in Brimir's name said noble was acting weird, Siesta was brave enough to befriend a living doll lady. So, she nodded and held her hand out to Kirche. "Miss Zerbst, I will be honored to assist you in your investigation."

"Please, call me Kirche. We should be friends."

Siesta needed to take a moment to think after hearing those words. "I, uh, sure. C-call me Siesta, please."

"It is a pleasure to have your companionship. Though you did call Tabitha by her given name earlier." Kirche said, a twinkle in her eyes. "Oh, and Louise too. Shame, shame, shame."

Siesta flushed at Kirche's teasing and looked to Tabitha. "I'm sorry, madam. I don't know any other name you go by."

Tabitha looked up from her book and finally spoke. "Tabitha is fine."

"Oh of course! You would have said something before." Siesta said and studied the blue haired girl, waiting for another verbal reply.

Tabitha returned to her book.

"Oh, she likes you." Kirche said, putting her hands on her hips and jerking her posture in a proud stance. Or, the odd jerk was meant to bounce her assets, but her more conservative clothing held them firm. It seemed old habits died hard for nobles, especially the flirtatious kind. "So now that we've decided to be friends here, cooperation in solving the mysteries that revolve around Louise and her familiar, let's get to work!"

Siesta looked at the moonlit sky. It was getting late. "What do you have in mind, Kirche."

"Get some wood polishing oil, I want to see what makes that Doll feel nice."

"Wood polishing oil?" Siesta repeated the request back. "Why would you want to make the doll feel nice, and you seriously think she'd want to be-ahem-polished?" The idea was almost funny.

"What else would a person made of wood want? Oh! We should ask her about _that_ , maybe the guy who made her was a pervert."

Siesta covered her face, hiding the flush that burned her cheeks. "You can't go asking ladies, even if they're made of wood, something so cross. That's terrible. You yourself are a woman!"

"Pff, stuck up none sense. I am a hunter of love, and all things pertaining to love interest me. Does a living doll love? Lust? What's the emotional complexity of that being. That's the questions I want to ask." Kirche almost sounded philosophical, if it weren't for the way she held her stomach and wriggled back and forth.

Siesta could already see what her biggest task ahead was going to be. Keeping this pervert on track and focused. "What about the supposedly deadly illness? That's what we want to ask the Doll."

"No, no! I mean, yes, but surely she won't just tell us outright." Kirche almost looked a little disappointed. The look of a kicked puppy then melted with a smirk.

Siesta knew, just knew, that the next statement out of Kirche's mouth would be lewd. She started walking, leaving the mage to sputter for a moment, and kept her eyes forward. "Come on now." She called over her shoulder. "I'll meet you there, I have to get some polishing oil first." Honestly, the first noble she was befriending, or she thought this might be a serious attempt at friendship, was a foreign weirdo. She was glad that Louise's familiar was of the finer gender. Because, if the Doll was a boy instead of a girl… No! She was not going to let her thoughts go down that path.

…..

The Doll was taken to the baths by two of the students and a maid. She was not sure why the one named Kirche was insistent on taking her to a bath. The Doll didn't need to wash everyday like a human. She did not have the flesh and blood of an organic creature. It was only when she was subjected to extreme treatment when such smells escaped her form. Perhaps they wanted to wash Louise? The Doll was originally attached to the dream, so tasks such as washing were automatically done for the hunters.

She delved into Louise's consciousness and asked her master if she was fine with being washed. Louise was pleased to have been asked, but gave her consent. The Doll was already taking care of Louise's needs from bodily relief to exercise. "I'm already being giggled at having you walk me around like a mom with her toddler, holding my hand all the time. So you giving me a bath shouldn't be that more shameful." Louse had said, distracted as she worked on her threaded cane and adding a blood gem to it.

The Doll didn't mention that other students would be there. She was sure that since it was a public bath they were walking to, that the additional company would be a given.

In the changing room the girls undressed and the Doll gave simple command's to her charge, the body obeying with a sleepy expression. "Stubborn old crow lady, help me." Louise mumbled.

"Did she say something?" Kirche asked, walking to the Doll's side.

"She must be talking to Eileen." The Doll remembered the Good Hunter talk about a stubborn woman who dressed like a crow. Apparently the two became fast friends, despite their differences in prey. The events of that moment might even be repeated, like a play with actors who didn't know they were in an endless cycle to perform the same things over and over again.

"Eileen?" Siesta asked, walking up with a bucket full of soaps, sponges, and small brushes. One of the bottles was wood polishing oil, the Doll deducted that might be for her. She didn't need that, but the thought was rather cute and appreciated. She'd humor the humans. Well, maybe.

"Eileen the Crow, a hunter of hunters. She seeks those who have forgotten themselves, and puts them to rest." The Doll said, finish folding Louise's clothes in a neat pile. She had brought a clean pair of undergarments, socks, and a nightgown for Louise to wear after the bath.

"So, Louise wants this lady's help? Where is she by the way?"

The Doll forgot that she should have been hiding such details from these girls. She had met Kirche before, and the maid named Siesta. Apparently they were her new assistants in caring for Louise. The blue haired girl, Tabitha, was an enlightened individual and the Doll was sure had many eyes. Tabitha would see any attempt of the Doll trying to lie. She was never good at creating false stories, though she could play along with others' lies. For now, the Doll would explain the truth and hope it did not bring tragic consequences.

"Louise is stuck in a nightmare, from where I originated. It is a place not of the physical world anymore, held away by powerful beings, the souls of thousands on thousands of humans imprisoned to a terrible damnation." The Doll tried her best to explain the place Louise was stuck in. It sounded alright to her, and very accurate. Short and simple. Hunters didn't like long winded explanations. Of course, these humans didn't have any context to go off of, so maybe they didn't fully understand. "Keep this between us, the master of this school wishes to help Louise and does not want her to be harmed by those who misunderstand the situation."

The three girls nodded.

Kirche's eyes seemed to scan over the Doll several times and she smiled. "Darling, why are you still dressed? Shouldn't you clean your clothes and wash yourself with us?"

The Doll tilted her head in confusion. They wanted her to undress for the bath? Very well, if that was what they desired. The Doll sat Louise on a bench, instructing the body to wrap herself in a towel and sit dignified. Louise's muscles remember her normal postures and did as commanded.

Undressing, the Doll noted the interest the three girls had. Humans were strange. Even the blue haired Tabitha watched unashamed. Truly, these girls represented some of the contrasting personalities humans could have, and all were curious about the Doll's appearance. She was used to such stares from hunters when they asked for comfort.

The Doll actually knew how to give a show when she undressed, but this situation did not call for that. The girls were young and innocent in their interest. She folded her clothes next to Louise's and took her master's hand again.

"You're beautiful." Siesta the maid said.

"My creators made me with love and passion in mind. Such as your gods made you." The Doll hesitated and rethought that statement. She decided to say something else to distract her small blunder. The humans of this realm worshiped a human, perhaps an ascended one, but in their eyes, still a human.

She decided to answer their unspoken question. "And no, I cannot have children." She said this with regret in her voice, and it surprised herself. She looked at Louise and feft relief from the feeling of loss for something she'd never have. "I have her to care for, though, however small my duty is."

"Oh, that makes sense, but its sad if you wanted them." Siesta mumbled stepping towards the bathing room.

They entered together and each of the girls scrubbed themselves down. Kirche was unabashed to try and help the Doll with Louise, but the Doll was sure her master wouldn't appreciate that gesture. "No." She said while working diligently to take extra care of Louise's hair.

"Well we brought these fine brushes and oil for you." Kirche declared, shaking the half empty bucket with the remaining supplies.

"If you wish to help, I've only one pair of clothes. You may wash those." The Doll said.

"Oh… Hey, Siesta, would you mind washing the Doll's clothes? I don't know how to."

"I don't mind." Siesta called back, scrubbing her hair with a pleasant expression. The Doll thought that the maid might not get to attend these baths often.

The Doll guided Louise to the rinsing bath and eased her master gently into the warm water. "Hold you breath." She whispered into Louise's ear, and the sleeping body obeyed, even grabbing her nose. The Doll dipped Louise under like baptizing a child. She brought the girl back up and pulled her to the resting bath, where Louise's muscles could relax and her pores open. The nobles were very particular about the detail of care for their physical forms, to keep themselves as beautiful as possible.

Tabitha stepped in next to the Doll. "What do you want with us?" She whispered.

The Doll tilted her head. "What do I desire? To serve." It was her purpose, what else would she want from people? Friendship was a fond experience she only had the pleasure of having a few times in her long, long life. But even then she still served them. Her love for such friends made her purpose more fulfilling.

"No." Tabitha said, her voice lowering down to the barest of whispers. "You're of _them_."

The Doll's insight took the simple statement and connected it to truth. "Yes, I am paleblooded, but not one of greatness." She said without fear.

Tabitha nodded, her eyes turning hazy. This child had much insight.

Kirche plopped into the water, breaking the short exchange. "So, you said your creators made you for love? Does that mean you can love? Do you enjoy..." Her voice trailed off and her eyes fluttered, leaving the implication of the rest of her statement hanging.

The Doll calmly tapped Kirche's nose. "Be calm."

Kirche slumped, her whole body relaxing into the water. She slipped in until the water was up to an inch from her nostrils. Then, she blew little bubbles and her shoulder shook with quiet laughter.

Siesta eased in next to Kirche. "Wow, I wish I could do that." She poked Kirche's cheek.

Kirche gave Siesta an annoyed look before returning to her relaxed state.

"I can teach you if you wish. When your magic is strong enough."

Siesta blushed and shook her head. "Oh no, I'm not a mage. I'm of common blood."

"Your blood needs more strength. Echoes of blood can increase one's natural affinity and or bless you with new affinity. If you hunt, and bring back the fading strength that clings to your soul."

Kirche peeked out of the water and Tabitha stared at the Doll with an unblinking gaze. Siesta flustered at what the Doll said. Maybe such implications of a commoner turning into a mage was too much for their current understanding.

Louise's body started to swim in the water and bumped into Siesta's shoulder. It knocked the girl from her shock. Louise drifted away, doggy pattling to the other end of the warmed pool.

"You can make me a mage?" Siesta said with an awed tone.

"I think. Maybe. You are of a certain ethnicity I know of, their common blooded have turned intp fine arcane hunters." The Doll thought about who Siesta was and realized that this conversation could lead to the girl doing something beyond her ability. "It takes much to strengthen one's blood enough to be of use. Do not think simple hunting of small animals will do this. I speak of slaying beasts that could tear any normal man apart." It was put gruesomely to deter any foolish action by the child.

"Oh, so. I'd have to be a great warrior already." Siesta mumbled and sank into the bath.

The Doll was sadden to have disappointed Siesta. It was for the maid's safety though.

"So, what about me. Could you make me stronger?" Kirche said, saddling up to the Doll again.

"You, not currently. Tabitha? Yes." The Doll said and stood. She called for Louise and the girl's body swam to the edge of the bath and crawled out. It took the body a moment to understand it wasn't in water anymore and stood on wobbly feet. The Doll helped Louise back to the changing room to dry her master off and dress her.

Kirche followed. "Hey, don't leave on that!"

"Will you hunger for power? Are you a hunter, ready to hunt beast and man-things for blood?" The Doll asked, seriously wondering if this silly girl wanted to step down such a path. She was made to care for hunters, but that did not mean her compassion for human happiness was blinded by her first purpose. Many hunters regretted their choices.

"Well, yes. Of course. I'm Germanian, what else would I do but seek to be stronger?"

The Doll considered this and nodded. "Then seek out destruction, kill and slaughter. Return without dying, for you are not connected to a dream, and I will channel your bloodechoes into your sickly spirit."

"You said, you could do it for Tabitha right now, right?" Kirche asked, excitement in her eyes.

"Does she wish, for the blood that stains her soul, to be used to strengthen her?" The Doll asked, drying Louise down. "My master here, she at first was scared by this knowledge. She has increased her abilities despite her fear, her ultimate goal being that of freedom from her affliction."

"Oh, Louise the Zero is getting stronger somehow? Can she actually cast magic without it blowing up?" Kirche laughed.

The Doll felt as if she should defend her master's honor. She found the strong emotion was connected to their bond, but she did not mind that the bond changed her. Honestly, it felt good to be a little different than how she once was. "Louise's power is consuming. The explosions are a fault of her not using the right element, of using too much power for the wrong purpose. It might be easier for her to create new magic than master what has been set by history."

"Wait, so… She's never going to be able to be a proper mage?"

"Her strength will rival that of greatness. You will not understand without seeing. She is the point in the night sky that consumes stars. Her magic is hunger itself, that of starved beast, driven to eat magic for it to grow. It is the end of everything and the beginning of time. Nothing manifest as something."

Kirche frowned and crossed her arms over her chest. "Are you calling her a void mage?"

The Doll pulled Louise into her nightgown, like dressing a child for bed. "I cannot say. Only that I described what her power is. Her soul drinks from the nightmare that traps her mind. It fills her very being, adding to herself. Perhaps she will never learn to use her natural affinity, instead, creating something new in its place."

"That almost sounds sad." Kirche said, possibly thinking of her own natural affinity. The affinity someone was born with had to be a personal intimate part of who they were.

"It is deeply sad." The Doll paused when she walked to her folded up clothes. They hadn't been washed yet. "I agreed to have these washed."

"Oh yeah. Sorry, I thought the bath might take longer." Kirche turned and eyed Siesta who walked in, drying herself down.

"Oh!" Siesta said. "I said I'd wash those. If you'd like, I can run and find you some clothes your size." Her face turned thoughtful and then blushed. Siesta seemed to be the blushing type of girl. "I'm not sure if we have any clothes your size. You've very tall."

The Doll nodded. "A long dress will do. My legs will show some, but decency here is different from once I came."

Siesta left after dressing.

The Doll sat next to Louise. She put her hands in her lap and waited patiently, practicing dodging questions with Kirche who wanted to know more how to strengthen her magic. Tabitha stood to the side, ignoring any attempt to get her to strengthen her magic right there and then. The Doll was correct in assuming the blue haired girl didn't want to use the blood staining her soul to become stronger. There was a lot of echoes that vibrated inside Tabitha, unused energy waiting for someone who could channel them.

Siesta returned with a yellow dress. The Doll pulled it on and was embarrassed that her knees showed. The dress wasn't a bad garment to wear. She could see in a dressing mirror that it was cute. Her knees, however, might draw attention. Her leg segments ended in grooves above and below the knee, showing a bit of the wood ball that made up her knees. Humans often stared at the Doll's hands. She was used to that. But now strangers might look at her knees, and she needed to a moment to fight back self-conscious thoughts. She was glad after she laced her boots up, thankful strangers didn't see how segmented her feet and ankles were.

Such thought could be humorous by some considering she was fully exposed around new faces moments ago. But there was something different about spending time with others unclothed without any implications attached to the situation. They were simply washing themselves and talking. It was a strange but affective bonding experience.

She turned to the three girls who joined her for a bath and bowed. "If you would like, I will accept the polish and apply it in the privacy of my master's room."

Kirche beamed and elbowed Siesta's side. "See, knew she'd like it."

The Doll smiled at the young woman's eccentric nature. "You gift is appreciated." She bowed. "I bid you goodnight until we meet in the waking morning. May you dream peacefully and rest well."

…..

" _How did I react when my familiar told me she was befriending Kirche and Tabitha? Well, I was angry at first. Then I realized Kirche didn't really compare to my problems anymore. Did the Doll say too much right after she agreed to try and keep things quiet? Yes, but I don't blame her. It goes against her nature to be dishonest. She was doing everything to the best of her ability, and it should be admired. I guess I'm lucky Kirche ended up being alright and a good friend."_


	5. Chapter 4

" _It was easy to lose track of time. Easy to forget. It was hard to live in two worlds at different speeds. My familiar's unique distortion spell had consequences, both good, both bad, sometimes nothing more than a simple fact of my life then."_

 _My colleagues won't think to note Miss Kitty's Vallière's body language. So I will. She developed a nervous tick of playing with her tail when she talked about back then. It's not a common trait among beast-blooded. Such a gesture can come off as lewd to some, and deviant to others. As a sub note to the historians that might read my commentary, I would like to remind you that Louise is/was a pure hearted individual and well respected by the people of New Yharnam._

* * *

Henrietta knocked on the door, praying that what she heard were lies, that it was all somehow a practical prank by the school faculty. The Headmaster had a reputation of harassing his students. Perhaps he didn't know his boundaries, perhaps he convinced the whole school to make up stories and lies about Louise. It wasn't too far fetched. Louise the Zero, the students had been reported calling her. Was it harmless teenage bullying, or deeper? Henrietta wished she could have stopped, but such intervention from the crown over a small issue would be seen as unseemly. Now the students were reported to have said, Louise the Ghost, Louise the Beast, Louise the Cursed. Their bullying was getting out of hand. Louise was perfectly fine!

The door opened and a strange doll like face looked back at her. Henrietta jumped, shocked by the sight of the foreign thing.

"Hello, what is it that you desire?" The creature asked, her voice thick with a beautiful and haunting accent.

Henrietta gulped. "I'm here to see Louise." She said and pushed her way in.

The creature stepped aside, her face showing no change of emotion. Henrietta nervously stepped past the stranger and rushed to Louise's bedside.

There, lying peacefully, was her childhood friend. "Oh." Henrietta sighed, falling to her knees before her sleeping friend. She didn't bother removing her hood, instead reaching and touching Louise's calm face.

"Who might you be?" The stranger asked from behind.

Henrietta narrowed her brow and looked at the stranger. "I'm the princess, Henrietta." It wasn't often someone asked who she was. Then again, she had ditched her guards and was wearing a cloak to disguise herself. Wasn't that the point of a disguise. It worked, so Henrietta shouldn't be confused. "And you are?" Might as well return the question.

"I am a Doll, created to take care of Hunters. I am the Young Hunter's familiar." The Doll said, her tone matter of fact, voice serene.

"Oh." Henrietta blurted, blushing at having ignored the strange creature so readily. And then she felt angered by the Doll's presence. "You're the one who cursed Louise!"

"I have not cursed her, that I am sure." The Doll said. "You know my master? Do you wish to speak with her?"

"I." Henrietta composed herself and stood. "Yes, I wish to speak with her. Can you do that? I heard odd reports of her ghost haunting the academy, is that possible to talk to her that way?"

"Talk? Yes, you can talk to her, but she will not be able to speak back."

Henrietta felt her anger boil. She kept her temper in check, telling herself that the Headmaster wouldn't allow a dangerous creature to be alone with Louise. Despite his reputation of sexual harassment towards the female staff of the academy.

"So I can't speak with her? She's asleep, of course she can't talk back." She wanted to throw herself over Louise and sob over her friend. This wasn't right. Why her dear friend? What had Louise ever done in her life to deserve such a fate? It was unfair. The one person in Henrietta's life who was meant to be always free now was imprisoned in some sort of magical nightmare.

The reports were true, evidenced by the presence of the living mannequin in front of her.

Henrietta didn't want the reports of this curse to be true. She didn't want to have to deal with strange magics that involved the separation of soul and body. The imprisonment of her friend's mind. This was a threat possibly greater than the elves themselves. It was unknown magic.

The Doll walked to Louise's side and touched her forehead.

Henrietta waited in silence for a minute, unsure what the Doll might be doing. If she looked close, she noted that the tips of the Doll's finger's glowed a pale white. And so, she waited for Louise's familiar to finish her strange, damnable, magic.

Was it hypocritical of Henrietta to want what she was told of Louise's soul being able to separate from her body to be true? And at the same time, for Henrietta to despise such an idea? She was so confused over her feelings involving this dreadful curse, that she couldn't make up her mind on the stance she wanted to take in regards to its more pliable symptoms.

The ringing of a bell echoed in her mind and Henrietta jumped at the sound. She looked about, trying to see who might have rang a bell and why.

There was no one else in the room.

The bell rang again, an ominous jingle that chilled her bones. Henrietta shivered and looked at the Doll. "Do you hear that?" She asked, hoping Louise's curse wasn't contagious somehow. That would be terrible for the kingdom if Henrietta herself fell to what took her dearest friend.

The Doll tilted her head and smiled. Henrietta didn't understand how something made of wood could move like flesh, it was like talking to a spirit. "No," the Doll said, "But I know of what you hear. All is well friend of Louise."

Henrietta didn't feel assured. She knelt down to Louise's bedside again, taking her friend's hand in her own. In that moment, she realized how small Louise was. Fragile in appearance. Henrietta hated the thought of Louise being married off and hidden away from proper society because of her reputation of not being a true mage. Henrietta was worried Louise wouldn't be able to summon a familiar.

But now?

Henrietta looked at the Doll. That summoning caused this trouble. She felt an irrational anger towards the alien creature. It was a hard feeling to wrestle under control. The Doll denied placing Louise under any curse. Still, who else could have done it but the Doll?

"Did you do it out of spite? Louise took you from your home, so you cursed her in turn. Was that it? You were angry at her, maybe you were scared to be in a different place suddenly." Henrietta found herself accusing the Doll openly. She turned away from the Doll, and looked at Louise, focusing on her sleeping friend. "I heard that this curse is horrible. That Louise is stuck in a nightmare. Is that true? She's trapped in a dream of hell, filled with abominations?"

"She is a young hunter, new to the ways of hunting beasts. She has been hurt many times. Be assured, her will is tremendous and unbreaking. She hunts for salvation, and is adapting well at reaching for her prey." The Doll said, and put a hand on Henrietta's shoulder.

Henrietta wanted to shake that wooden hand off, but couldn't muster the energy. Bending over Louise's prone form, she cried. "It's not right. Everything is going wrong, and now poor Louise. I had been thinking of asking for her help recently. Now I can't rely on her. She needs me."

"She is strong, she will prevail."

"I'll take her away to the Palace. I can keep her safe there maybe."

The door creaked opened and Henrietta started. She whirled around, and saw a small blonde haired girl with an ethereal red glow about her person.

"Ooh, you must be the princess!" The girl cheerfully said and then curtsied. "I'm Melody, nicknamed after a music box I loaned to Louise."

"W-what?" Henrietta stuttered, unnerved by the red glow radiating from the small child. The girl couldn't be older than ten.

"Miss Kitty panicked and didn't want to leave just yet. She said she needed to get ready, clean up, wear something that'll hide her embarrassing fur." Melody skipped into the room and up to Louise's bedside. "It's always weird looking at Zombie Louise. Daddy would have tried performing an exorcism for her. Of course that wouldn't have worked, y'all's didn't. Of course, he went crazy and Louise, she, she… She'll be here soon." The girl seemed to have broken for a moment, as if her cheerful tone were no more than a cracked mask.

Henrietta breathed, and told herself the red glowing girl was harmless. That it was just a child. Someone who knew Louise, perhaps interacted with Louise on a regular basis. Henrietta's brain caught up with the impossible situation of what she was seeing. The reports said Louise's ghost glowed red, like a vengeful spirit come back to haunt the living. Those reports mentioned other phantoms, and that the Headmaster came up with a strange cover up story about it being apart of the treatment for an unknown magical affliction.

"You've spoken with Louise?" Henrietta asked tentatively. She reached out and tapped Melody's shoulder, amazed that the phantom body had mass.

"Yup, lots. We're good friends. She saved me from a big nasty pig and helped me bury Daddy and Mummy."

"I see. Does that mean you come from within the nightmare?"

The girl nodded.

Henrietta stared at the girl, taking note of the child's foreign ethnicity and accent. The white ribbon Melody wore seemed to solidify her innocents. There was much more to this than Henrietta knew. Louise was apart of something that impacted more than herself. Such as this young foreign girl. An important question came to mind, and Henrietta was terrified by its implications. "How many people are in this nightmare?" She dared asked the question anyway.

Melody stared back, but her eyes looked into a distant far away place. "The whole of Yharnam. Lots and lots of people and beasts. The whole city. Louise said she tried escaping the city, to see if she could. There was a foggy wall, she said, that trapped everything within. I'm not sure if Yharnam is apart of any world anymore. Maybe, stuck away between places."

A chill ran up Henrietta's spine. A whole city? How large was the city? That could be thousands of people. "How big is your city?"

"Very big, and very old. We have bridges and cathedrals. Towers that reach to the sky and tunnels and ancient tombs buried deep very deep"

So a metropolis. Was that tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions? So many people, and Louise was now stuck with them.

"Miss Kitty, she's gonna try and save as many people as she can. The Hunter's Dream, the place between here and Yharnam, it's getting crowded." The little girl started counting her fingers. "We have a crow lady who used to hunt other hunters. A dog lady who was the Vicar of the Healing Church. A dog guy that wears bandages over his eyes, I think his name is Gilbert. An old grouchy grandma. A mommy that sells her 'services' and has a baby with tentacles for hair. A nun that's shy, but really I think she's insane. A skeptical guy that reads people backwards. And an old creepy man who's really just a lonely poor sap. And a beggar that I think might be cannibal, we chained him up when he tried eating the whore's ugly baby."

Henrietta stared, the bits of information going into one ear, bounced around her brain, and left with a sense of confusion. "It sounds like Louise has been busy. And, Miss Kitty? You're referring to Louise there, right?"

"Yup. She's like the dog lady and dog guy, sort of beast, sort of not. She has her wits still, her body, or maybe her spirit? Well she forgot how to be human. Too much blood." Melody leaned forward and put her hand to her mouth as if she were about to whisper something, hiding her lips from imagined onlookers. "When you see Louise, you should give her head pats. She likes head pats. And her ears rubbed. But don't grab her tail, she might rip your throat out."

"I'm-" Henrietta shook her head, leaning away from the little foreigner. "I'm confused."

"You think you're confused? Think about the poor dog lady, she used to be a Vicar of the Healing Church! And then comes Louise, blowing her up when she was transforming, and giving her wits back to her. Everyone in the Hunter's Dream is super confused. Isn't that right Miss Dolly." Melody said, looking at Louise's familiar.

The Doll nodded.

"Do you know what's really confusing?" Melody asked with a wry smirk.

"What?" Henrietta asked, hearing another bell ring. She ignored the strange noise in her mind. Insanity now caused by stress would be a distraction to dwell on later.

"Your underwear!"

Henrietta blushed. "Eh-excuse me?"

"Panties. They're so small. How do women here live wearing those? It's indecent!"

Henrietta glanced to Louise, who was asleep, and then to the Doll. She instinctually wanted help to escape such an awkward question. To be confronted about her people's underwear and called indecent, she wasn't sure how she was supposed to react. Henrietta took a breath to calm her embarrassment. "We became liberal in some aspects of life. It's a natural occurrence of social change." Best repeat something her tutors told her about society.

"My mum would rather be eaten by beasts than be caught wearing panties." Melody sniffed. There was a twinkle in her eye, a mischievous quirk to her lips.

Henrietta was relieved that the child was simply joking with her. Still, the way Melody jumped from one end of the conversation to the next left Henrietta with little room to learn anything useful. No, that wasn't true. Giving it some thought, she had learned something.

There was a whole city stuck within the dream Louise was apart of.

Louise was busy saving people.

This girl was in front of Henrietta right now, confirming again that the magical nightmare curse was real. Louise was apart of something amazing and terrifying. It was overwhelming to wrap her head around. Henrietta sighed, some of her burden lifting as she realized how she was handling it. Shock. Her confusion, her inability to settle on one emotion. It helped that she understood her reaction now, and that in turn helped to lessen the storm inside her heart.

"Louise is well then?"

"Miss Kitty is as well as the rest of us dreaming folk." Melody said, smiling brightly.

Henrietta thought she saw the cracks in the girl's well formed mask. It was almost too happy. The girl's answer implied that Louise was handling her situation as everyone else from where the child had come from. It showed remarkable wit for such a young girl. And deviousness to have given a half lie while controlling her expression. She could grow up and make it far in a court of nobles.

Or perhaps Henrietta was reading too deeply into the situation. She needed the full story from Louise herself.

The door opened a third time that hour and another red glowing person stepped inside.

Henrietta gasped and jumped to her feet. She gave no regard to the strange beastly features of her friend. No, she ran to Louise and wrapped her in a sudden hug. "Oh my dearest friend!" She wept, holding the smaller woman tight to her and squeezed. It was a warm intimate embrace that she dared not give any other.

"Gahh! Craah, maah." Louise sputtered weird noises, clearly being crushed by Henrietta's hug.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." She stepped back and took a moment to look her friend over. "This is your phantom?" She looked over her shoulder to make sure that the body was still there, and confirming that Louise was actively in two places at once.

Louise knelt onto the floor, bowing before Henrietta. Oddly, a pink tail curled around Louise's feet, adding to the formality of the bow.

No, not this. Henrietta was not a princess tonight. She was not here to be Louise's monarch. She was here to be a friend. "Stand up, Louise!" She commanded, pulling her friend back to her feet. "Talk to me, I've been so worried. I don't understand what's happened to you."

Louise's face turned pink as her hair and her fur. Henrietta tried not to stare at the beastly traits. Hadn't Melody mentioned Louise wanted to hide these traits? Perhaps Louise decided not to bother.

"Miss Kitty, you decided not to wear the new Hunter's Garb! It was cool, why wear a dress?" Melody asked, voicing Henrietta's own thoughts as a different question.

Louise grabbed Melody's head and shoved her to the ground. As if she hadn't assaulted a child, Louise bowed again to Henrietta. But she did not speak.

Henrietta sighed, but took another moment to study Louise's new set of feline ears. They were big, pink, and fluffy. She reached out to the ears and softly touched its tip.

Louise visibly shuddered but did not rise from her kneeling bow.

Taking it as an invitation, Henrietta patted Louise's head and experimentally rubbed the cat ears. An odd sound emanated from Louise and it took Henrietta a moment to realize her friend was purring. She did the best she could think in the moment and continued to play with the cute ears. It was strangely satisfying for Henrietta.

"Grab her tail next." Melody said, face still pressed to the floor. "She likes, ow!"

Henrietta was curious to feel Louise's tail. Despite remembering what Melody mentioned earlier about Louise not liking her tail grabbed.

And oh Founder, that sounded truly perverse. Henrietta blushed and stepped back from her friend. "Talk to me Louise, I'm confused about all of this." She waved her hand through the room, as if such a motion could encompass the very essence of this strange new world she found herself trying desperately to understand. To step into without falling in like her friend had.

Louise mumbled something. She stood and walked passed Henrietta to the Doll and accepted a note pad and pencil. Sitting on the bed, she patted the space next to her.

Henrietta sat down, looking between the slumbering body of Louise and the glowing red phantom. "This is quite strange."

'Yes. I'm used to it.' Louise wrote, note pad in lap so Henrietta could see Louise's words as she wrote them. 'I can't talk right. Everything comes outs as beastly sounds. Those of the nightmare can understand what I say, but not even a translate spell fixes it.'

"I see. I'm sorry to hear that." henrietta blushed when Louise turned at her and gave a snort of amusement. "Read that. I don't often have conversations with a mute."

Louise rolled her eyes and wrote, 'I'm no mute. I'm very vocal.' She paused after writing her last sentence, pen held to the paper as if she were thinking for a moment what to say next. 'I have a talking familiar. Isn't that suitable for a mage turned beast?'

Henrietta touched Louise's cheek. "You're no beast." She whispered, looking deeply into the eyes that shined so brightly during their childhood together.

Louise's eyes turned to slits, and Henrietta gasped. It was if Louise had read her mind and did something to deny her memories and thoughts. Louise wrote on her note pad, a low growl emanating from deep within. 'You haven't seen me fight. I forgot about the exhibition. I'll show you how much of a beast I have become.'

Melody pushed her head in between them. Henrietta grunted as the child continued to crawl forward, shoving her to the side. Literally acting as a wedge between two old friends. Melody then hugged Louise, and she in turn growled disapprovingly.

Henrietta might have felt offended by the girl's rudeness if she weren't so cute and seeing Louise openly affectionate.

"Miss Kitty." Melody said, Louise growling again. "You're no monster. You're beautiful when you fight, with lots of twists and turns. Your weapon is like a ribbon, flying through the air. You're very pretty, even when you're drenched in blood."

The soft warm feeling at seeing Melody comfort Louise's femininity vanished with those last words. Drenched in blood, the child had said. Henrietta looked at Louise again and for the first time, she could imagine Louise as a mighty warrior defending the crown no matter the cost or how dirty the job. It was scary to see bits of Louise's mother in that moment, a hardened woman but someone who would complete any mission given to her.

This damnable curse could be an asset that might save the kingdom.

"Louise," Henrietta said, thinking back to some of the more colorful reports. "I've heard strange things about you dying, repeatedly."

Louise growled something and Melody looked up. "She says, yes. She dies a lot. I can die a lot too now, because I'm connected to the Hunter's Dream. We're like, super hard to kill beasts. Louise is calling it dream magic. She spends a lot of time reading and writing books." Melody paused, listening to Louise some more and nodded. "The best way to solve a problem is to understand it. And if you can't, make up the right math formula so you can."

"That's very." Henrietta found herself responding without much thought. "Insightful."

Louise's body stiffened and Melody laughed out loud.

"What?" Henrietta was confused by their sudden response to her lame comment. "What did I just say? Insightful?"

"Oh, you'll understand soon, Miss Princess." Melody said, patting Henrietta's thigh. "Insight is sort of like a dirty word, but not really."

"I see." Henrietta muttered in reply, not really seeing much meaning behind their reaction to the word 'insight.' They were acting weird.

"Do you really, 'seeee~?' How many eyes do you have?" Melody asked and was promptly hit over the head by Louise. "Ow!"

There was a joke here, one that Henrietta wasn't apart of but was the punchline to, somehow. She sighed, then smiled. These two phantoms, one an old friend and the other a charming girl, were having conversations with context that Henrietta knew nothing of. It meant, in a long winded way of saying it, that Louise had made a new friend.

She looked at the Doll standing off to the side, ignored and forgotten by the humans in the room. Henrietta shouldn't have judged the Doll so readily. Perhaps this curse that clutched at Louise's life had a few blessings in disguise. Perhaps it was a matter of circumstance and Louise was the unlucky girl to draw the short stick. There was a lot that Henrietta didn't know and was scared to learn.

And Melody spoke of something strange. Dream magic?

"Louise." Henrietta spoke, excited and scared of what she was about to ask of her friend. "Tell me about this dream magic. Is it, safe? Is it, proper?" Is it blasphemous?

Louise grinned, showing off her considerably sharp canines, and pulled out her wand. She chanted, voice strange growls, and flicked the wand as if she were casting something.

A ball rainbow color formed in the air. Thousands of ribbons of light of different shades and hues wrapped around each other and faded, coming in and out of existence.

Henrietta gasped, amazed. She stared and thought she saw shapes with the ever changing light show. Perhaps she even heard faint singing and music? It took her an amazing amount of strength to look away from that majestic creation, as if she were forcing herself to wake up from a wonderful dream. No, the feeling was exactly that, waking up refreshed and filled with fading, lovely, memories.

Louise cast a spell that hadn't failed. It was unlike any that Henrietta had seen and through her emotional ups and downs of the past hour, her heart soared for her friend. She grabbed Louise, reaching over the currently mesmerized Melody, and kiss Louise's forehead. "You did it. Good for you." She said, crying tears of joy. It felt amazing, and the world seemed so much brighter now.

'Thank you.' Louise mouthed, her pride seeming to radiant off her very being. Her cat ears wiggled, and Henrietta was humored to see Louise's tail whipping about excitedly.

Henrietta looked back at the colorful ball of twisting light, and sat back on the other side of Melody. She waited there and watched, her awe banishing any fear or hurt left in her heart. With her own eyes, she had witnessed Louise perform perfectly acceptable magic. It was new and so very beautiful. They watched the ball of light twist and turn, singing with a faint orchestra. It lasted for a fleeting amount of time and collapsed on itself. There was a sense of rejuvenation after that, as if she had woken up from the best rest she'd ever had.

Perhaps the spell had done more than give a pretty show?

* * *

 **A note about me, the** **writer** **. I'm more of a fan of FoZ crossovers, so my base knowledge of the original content, world and characters, is mostly second hand. I'm currently watching the anime as I write this for inspiration, and I thought** **kid Louise was adorable during the short flashback during the episode this chapter references.**

 **And yes, Louise has been very busy lately.** **I'd love ideas for dream spells. Or ideas in general. Who else should step out of the nightmare? Eileen perhaps? Maybe poor Gilbert? That guy could use a happy ending too.**


	6. Chapter 5

_Given that Miss Vallière has given speeches at several magical academies and colleges the following was said in a rehearsed manner._

" _Brimir blessed the first families with four basic elements to counter a worldly presence. His gifts were grand and saved humanity on our world. What I did, was I started with the Dream element to fight the nightmare. In reality, the nightmare was what I was manipulating. That's why the element of Dream and Nightmare are one in the same, but their applications vastly differ from another. Its the perception of that element that makes it seem its two different elements. Some scholars are beginning to call it the element of the mind._

" _We have so much that we don't know about Brimir's gifts. Did he want us to find more elements, did he even know, or did he intentionally leave us ignorant? How many unknowing mages exist in the commoner populace? No, not fallen nobles or the descends of those nobles, but gifted families that were never given a chance. Perhaps, we weren't ready to hold such power. I can't say we're ready for it now, but I opened the gates, and the world must suffer the growing pains. It's our responsibility now as known nobility not to abuse the blood that runs through us all."_

* * *

"Next up is Louise Vallière and her familiar." The crowd of students and faculty fell silent.

The Doll walked onto the stage and bowed to the students who had spun wild rumors about her and her master. Today she and Louise would give them a show. Her master took unsteady steps behind her, one foot by one foot. She used a cane to walk with, tapping along, each step a careful calculation on her part. People whispered when they spotted Louise walk on her own.

It wasn't so strange, really. The Doll was able to give Louise's body simple commands. However, what was unique about this was that it was Louise herself taking control, and it was notisable. This was not the walking of a mumbling zombie, but the natural movements of a conscious human. Louise needed days within the Hunter's Dream to practice and reconnecting with her body through dream magic. The hard work she put into her next few minutes would only be appreciated by those who had listened, or read, Louise speak of her endeavor.

She stood next to the Doll, blinded to the world around her, but not deaf. "H-hello." She said aloud. Before the crowd's whispers could grow and people gave any outbursts, Louise continued. "I'd like to take an extra moment." She breathed slowly, licking her lips. "To say something to all you."

A hush fell over the crowd and Louise had everyone's ear. Perhaps, normally they might have jeered at her. No, today she was talking to them and despite whatever conceptions that were whispered between another, the students knew well not to argue with a sickly person.

Or maybe they were simply to shock to really say anything in the first few moments.

"Over the last few weeks. I haven't been." Louise blinked her sightless eyes and grimaced. "Very well." She croaked, her voice coming out as a rasp. "But, I'm here now. And I'd like to." She began to breath deeply and struggled to hold herself up. She gripped the top of her cane with both hands. The Doll could see Louise's knuckles turn white. "Introduce myself and my familiar formally before the crown."

"Speak, Miss Vallière." The Princess said. Her words added more weight to Louise's return before the school. Or maybe to remind the crowd that royalty was in the vicinity, and keep them quiet.

It worked, and not a peep was heard.

"I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière, the Dreamer." She declared with increasing strength.

People gasped. One did not simply choose their runic name. It was given. Or so the Doll assumed.

"And this is my familiar." Louise gestured to the Doll. "Her formal title being the Plain Doll. She is no ordinary doll, despite her ironic title." Louise's voice gained more strength as she spoke, her emotions adding to the connect to herself. "She is a spirit born from greatness, crafted by man, and gifted with life. She talks, she feels, and she cares. Whatever happened, be it error on my part in the summoning of her here, or the creation of our bond, she is my familiar."

Two tears leaked from Louise eyes when she blinked. They roll off her cheeks, glistening in the sun's light. "Many of the rumors spoken in the last few weeks have been extreme, and wild, and scandalous." She gritted her teeth, and growled. "These rumors will stop. That is all I will say on this matter. Now..."

Louise took a final calming breath and looked to the Doll. "My familiar will present a short play today. If Tabitha can give a ten minute show, we can too. The Doll will narrate. Her voice is foreign and has a pleasing sound to it. I hope all of you will appreciate her."

"What classification is she!" Kirche yelled from the crowd. Her interruption was preplanned and approved by the teachers and headmaster before hand.

Louise smiled, new fangs showing. "Eldritch."

The Doll bowed to the crowd at this.

Louise walked to a chair at the far end of the stage, cane tapping along until it touched the chair's leg, and she sat. She gave a deep sigh of relief, and pulled out a tiny bell. Ringing it once, her body relaxed into the chair.

The Doll turned to address the crowd. "I am the Plain Doll, and I will narrate a short play acted by those who share my master's affliction."

People started to murmur.

The Doll continued. "As some of you have heard, seen, the treatment for this affliction is new and strange to you. It is not blasphemous, nor of malicious design. I am to declare this disclaimer because there are rumors that suggest the treatment is evil in some way. Be assured, each of these people are sound of mind and soul, despite being separated from their physical forms."

"That's supposed to explain the phantoms?" Someone asked.

"Yes." The Doll replied and continued. "This is a story of a child that ventured out on a despicable evening."

Melody walked out from behind the stage's backdrop, pulling off her cloak. She wore a white dress underneath that matched her bow. The white accentuated her red glow. Tucked in one arm was a basket with a red cloth covering it. She bowed to the crowd and began acting out her part, walking around the stage.

"The child was lost in a tangled wood. She had been tasked to seek her grandmother, and deliver a basket of medicine." The Doll said.

Several students were hushed. The Doll knew many of these students had questions. But it was not the time. Right now was meant to present herself to the crown. Louise believed her voice was her strongest characteristic.

Melody stopped then slowly walked backwards, as if she were scared.

"A beast found her."

Louise's phantom appeared, coalescing from the ground to stand in front of Melody. People gasped and pointed at Louise's slumped body in its chair. And then at Louise's phantom. Her phantom wore a tattered short one piece dress without sleeves. Her ears, tail, arms, legs, claws, fangs, fur, all showed.

Louise held up a sign that read, 'Shut up and enjoy the show.' Then she tossed the sign over the stage backdrop. She crouched into a predatory stance, stalking forward toward Melody.

Despite the strangeness of seeing two Louise at the same time, several students did laugh at Louise's sign. It was a tactic to show that this was apart of the play. That Louise was still her, despite being in two places at once.

"The beast was once a noble hunter, now cursed with the scourge." The Doll said, unmoving from her spot on the stage. "It was hungry."

Louise scratched the air and mewled a cute sound.

Several people snickered.

Melody dropped her basket and covered her mouth. "Oh no!" She exclaimed loudly for the crowd. "Please Miss Beast, do not eat me!"

"The girl tried to plea. The beast did not heed her pleas."

Louise pounced atop Melody and buried her face into the younger girl's stomach.

"The beast tore open the girl, eating her alive. She reached out and in her dying breath and called out."

"Help! Someone, please." Melody yelled. Her voice cracked and broke off into a giggle.

Louise had began tickling Melody, and the girl squirmed, her legs kicking.

"Oh, gods, hahaha! I'm d-dying." Clearly, this play was not supposed to be very serious.

The Doll patiently waited for the crowd to stop their own giggles. "And so, the girl perished." She clapped her hands, silencing Melody's connection to this realm.

Melody's phantom vanished under Louise.

Several students and a few of the teachers gasped.

"Once the beast finished devouring the girl's innocent blood, it paced, unsatisfied."

Louise started pacing, growling. "Food, food, I must have more food!" No one off stage would understand Louise, but it was a sign to those behind stage.

"The grandmother was distraught when she heard of her granddaughter's fate. She was once a hunter of beasts, and so, she picked up her sword again and set out to find the beast."

A black and red glowing figure vaulted from behind the stage's backdrop, landing in a flurry of black feathers. Several people clapped at her entrance. She slowly stood, her mask birthing more whispers from the crowd. Some students even pointed.

"Her name was Eileen the Crow, and she had brought her apprentice."

A phantom pulled itself out from the stage next to where Eileen landed. Melody reappearing, wearing hunter's garb but lacking a hat and face mask to show it was her.

"They hunted the beast for several nights."

Eileen and Melody gave chase after Louise, the three running around on stage playing an impromptu game of tag. People laughed when Melody jumped at Louise to grab her, but fell face first into the blanked floor. Louise wiggled her bum at Melody, and the crowd, her tail whipping mockingly back and forth. The little child sniffed, and reached for her side. She pulled out a wand.

"When the apprentice blundered, the beast mocked her. The apprentice then cast a spell to ward the beast, least it devour her."

Melody waved her wand chanting a fireball spell.

Nothing actually happened.

Louise jerked back, taking unsteady steps, and then spun on one foot.

"The beast was wounded and escaped."

Louise ran to the edge of the stage in front of the crowd and stopped, covering her eyes.

"It hid in its den. The hunters searched on."

Melody and Eileen put their hands to their foreheads, turning to and fro, as if they where looking for something. It was comically exaggerated, Melody crouching low and peering under an imaginery rock.

"And then they found the beast within its den. But the beast, it was not alone."

Two more figures walked out from behind the stage drop, their eyes covered in cloth. There was a woman with the traits of a canine, dog ears sprouting from atop her head, long claws protruding from her fingers and toes, and a fluffy wolfish tail. Oddly, there was a pair of antlers behind her ears that reached back, sprouting out like branches of a tree. The man next to her resembled the same type of beastly traits, lacking in antlers. They both glowed a vibrant red, wearing tattered clothes that showed their forearms and legs, like Louise. The new actors walked up to the front of the stage and together their turned to Eileen and Melody.

"The grandmother and her apprentice hunter, fought against the beasts."

The five phantoms clashed!

In the silliest of actions of course.

Louise jumped at Melody, but the girl ducked. Louise soared over Melody, landing behind her in a clumsy heap of tail and fur.

Eileen faced the antlered woman, drawing her blades.

The antlered woman yelped, and ran away.

The dog man tried attacking Eileen, but he took a few fast steps before bending over in a terrible cough.

Eileen gave chase to the antlered woman. Louise recovered from her landing and sprinted between Eileen and the antlered woman. Eileen ran right into Louise and they bowled over in a heap of fur and feathers, rolling nearly off stage. They then went into a practiced scuffle, hitting, kicking, tickling. Louise clearly lost to the tickling.

Melody pointed her wand at the coughing beast man, and loudly said a made up spell. The coughing man held up a hand, falling to his knees, and then played dead.

The antlered woman came back, and grabbed Melody in a hug.

"The apprentice was caught. Eileen the grandmother was fighting against the beast who had taken her granddaughter's life. But she saw that her apprentice would soon die."

Eileen ceased her tickling of Louise and looked up sharply as the antlered woman squeezed Melody tightly.

Melody kicked her legs when she was picked up. "Noo!" She cried out dramatically.

Eileen raised her blade and plunged it into the wood next to Louise's head.

"The hunter killed the beast who had eaten her granddaughter in a risky attempt to get away and assist her apprentice. But though she killed the beast, it struck out in death and injured Eileen."

Louise swiped at Eileen's stomach, and the old woman stumbled to her feet, clutching her gut. She took a few steps to Melody and the antlered woman, but stopped.

Louise's phantom turned to dust, swirling around Eileens legs before fading between realms.

"It was a grievous wound, and the grandmother would not live long." The Doll said.

Eileen bowed her head. "Oh new hunter, this old lady can't continue on." She looked up sharply and raised her blade above her head. "But you must!" The hunter tossed the blade to the captured Melody and the antlered beast woman.

The antlered woman let Melody go and the girl caught the flying blade. She turned, and slashed it in the air in front of the beast woman. The antlered woman backed away dramatically, and then fell to her knees and played dead.

The Doll clapped her hands and both the Ex-Vicar and Gilbert disappeared from this waking world.

Melody ran to Eileen's side.

"The hunt was successful, but ended in tragedy." The Doll said, voice sad.

"No, master! You can't die on me!" Melody waled, and held Eileen head in her little arms. "Please, we won. You must survive."

The Doll clapped her hands one last time. "Alas, it was too late and the grandmother perished." Eileen turned to mist within Melody's arms, fading back to the Hunter's Dream. "She left her apprentice behind, but had taught her many things. The apprentice buried her master and took the remains of the beasts home. Bringing an end to the hunt." Melody walked to the stage drop, back turned to the crowd, and she too, slowly disappeared.

The Doll was alone in front of the crowd. Once such a display of short phantom transitioning from the nightmare to this world would have cost Louise much insight. But insight was surprisingly easy to find within the nightmare and gifted often by the ascended good hunter. The Doll remembered how scholars would do such terrible things for more eyes. And now, it was an easy commodity to expend for Louise and her friends to give a play.

She stepped forward and took a bow before the gathered humans. An awkward silence returned to her ears. She kept her bow for a count of five, then stood. To the right and left of her the actors returned. Louise, Gilbert, Melody, Amelia, Eileen. This time they would not be departing so quickly. Together, the Doll and the assorted phantoms bowed again.

Someone clapped, perhaps Kirche, followed by another set of clapping hands, and then another. It was not a roaring applause, but still one of approval. Standing with her master and the other phantoms, the Doll walked to leave the stage. There, they would patiently wait for the Princess to decide on who had won the familiar exhibition. The Doll was not very interested in winning and Louise had told her that it was unlikely they would win. The rules were to show off what new familiars could do.

The Doll narrated a play.

'Anyone could narrate a play,' Louise had said. 'Dragons can fly.'

The Doll's thoughts were interrupted.

A puddle of light shined right in front of the Doll. She stopped, confused. This was not apart of the plan. The others were supposed to return to discuss possible political sensitive details with the princess later, idea for the future and what ifs. This new light was white, and a had a feeling of being welcomed to this realm. Unlike the red phantoms from the Hunter's Dream.

Slowly, a form rose from the light.

The Doll stood in front of it like an ignorant idiot.

Louise gasped from behind her, and the Doll looked over her shoulder to see why her master would react so to a new summoning so.

It was then that she felt the sword drive through her gut. The Doll gasped and turned to fight her attacker. It was a woman with large pointed ears and short gray hair. She glowed a vibrant white.

The Doll reached into the space between reality and imagination, drawing a sword.

The pointed eared woman sneered at her and yanked the sword violently from the Doll's gut.

The Doll stumbled and fell to her knees in front of her attacker, stunned.

The attacker waved her free hand, lightning arcing out from her palm catching those behind the Doll.

The Doll was deafened by the cracking electricity.

While casting lighting, the stranger swung her sword across the still stunned Doll's neck.

Paleblood spray out, white as the purest of snow. The Doll started to fall backwards, time slowing as her injuries came one after another. The woman followed her slash by shoving the hand that shot lightning into the Doll's opened throat, clutching the Doll's inner essence. Then the attacker pulled the Doll up by her neck, and yanked violently, throwing the Doll off the stage's edge over onto the crowd.

She spun through the air, blood bursting from her wounds with violent pressure. She could not hear the student's cry of fear, nor catch their faces, but knew they feared. The Doll feared, and hurt, and faded. Her body hit the ground, wood casing cracking and shattering.

Death was surprisingly quick.

* * *

 **Here's our first visceral attack.**

 **Would someone explain what nature magic is and how it works exactly? I haven't gotten to any elves in the anime as of this posting. And suggestions, or ideas, would help a lot.**


	7. Chapter 6

" _The eye witnesses described my change to that of a big cat. Like those found in the mountains or deep within jungles. Except, one could see that the Nightmare Form had once been human with long limbs. It actually resembles Amelia's Nightmare Form, though she takes on canine and deer like features when she turns." Louise had been painting a picture of her Nightmare Form for the interview and took that moment to share it with us. "Turning into this as a teenage girl? Could you blame me for running away from school?"_

* * *

Louise screamed, the sound of her vocal cords sending off a wave of energy that sent her surrounding comrades to the sides and two off the stage. She could not think of who those comrades were. She could only see the elf hunter in front of her. She could only see the thing that dared attack her familiar. Killed her familiar.

There was a ripping sensation inside Louise, a terrible pain as if something precious she had since birth were being taken away. She grabbed onto that internal bit of her, and held onto it with every fiber of desperation that her heart could wrap around it.

 _My familiar is not dead._ Louise declared to Nothing. _She is alive, she cannot die! I won't let her die, not now!_

Nothing seemed to recoil at her voracious will. It stopped pulling at the piece of Louise's soul it thought was its.

Louise would deal with that entity later. Right now... Louise clenched her teeth and glared at the elf phantom. Right now, she was going to eat a pointy eared wench. Lunging forward, Louise slashed at the phantom with her claws. She did not have her cane or firearm with her. She entered the world expecting to act out in a silly play, and then maybe oversee some important political discussion. What she did have was a manifestation of her wand, but that was going to be useless in the coming fight.

No, the only thing she could truly count on to enact her revenge was fang and claws.

The phantom dodged Louise's attack, moving like a hunter fighting a beast.

Louise accepted her role in this battle, fully aware of how she might look from an outsider's perspective. She screamed again, throwing the elf back.

The elf fell, her balance thrown off. She rolled and flipped back onto her feet, now at the edge of the stage. Raising her hand, lighting crackled as it charged.

Louise didn't care for the elf's magic. She would eat the elf. Eat the magic the elf used. Eat the spirits that assisted the elf. She would consume and kill.

The lightning passed Louise, striking someone from behind. That person screamed and likely died with the force of energy that pierced their body. Hopefully it was one of Louise's comrades, who were phantoms and could return to the Hunter's Dream.

Louise bounded forward, slashing at the elf again. Her claws tore into flesh and blood sprayed out. The scent heightened Louise's hunger for death, driving her forward. She craved for more, and swung another swipe at the elf.

The elf's sword ripped into Louise's chest, throwing her back. She stumbled, ignoring the wound and lunged forward again. The battle turned into a dance of lightning crackling from the elf and Louise's claws, slashing and tearing into flesh. Louise ignored each wound inflicted upon her, madly attacking like the enraged blood that boiled inside her.

A blur of black feathers joined Louise and in her haze she recognized it as Eileen. She jumped back from another cut from the elf's sword, letting Eileen jump in and attack. When the elf turned her lighting casting hand to Eileen, Louise jumped forward again grabbing the hand and biting down. Electricity coursed through Louise's phantom flesh, and she tightened her fangs.

Pain was mutable, pain was fleeting, pain was weakness, pain did not exist for Louise.

The elf hunter screamed and was stunned long enough for Eileen to drive both her blades into the elf's neck. The elf's head was severed a moment later, and then the phantom turned to dust, carried away by the wind.

Louise fell to her knees, panting from the burst of exertion she forced herself to endure.

The dust that the phantom turned into coalesced and formed into the elf again. She stood behind Louise's actual body.

Louise struggled to her feet and Eileen was running to the phantom again, but they both failed to understand how dangerous the elf hunter was.

It was like fighting a beast. It didn't matter how grievous a wound one gave it. One had to bleed it out to kill a beast of the nightmare.

The elf plunged her sword into Louise's physical chest, and Louise felt her heart being pierced. She threw her head back, both of her heads back, and screamed a mirror shattering cry. The world rippled as the sound of her dying breath was sent far into the land and slipped through reality's thin hold on her.

Her consciousness rapidly faded in death's clutch.

She didn't want to die here. She had so much to achieve, so much to do. There was something inside Louise, something that terrified her when she had seen it the first time within the nightmare. Her special magic, the thing that broke rules and was in every explosion she cast. The precious bit of her that Nothing wanted to take away when the Doll died-no-was-incapacitated. That bit of her did not belong to this realm, or it didn't belong in reality at all. It was a void, a dark hole that stretched for eternity. The power of a god, the power of greatness. It hung onto Louise, sharing in her want to be together with its host.

If her form as a human could not rise to hold this power, than she needed to be stronger. She needed large fangs, more fangs. Eyes, so many eyes in her mind to see. Sharper senses, stronger muscles. Larger form. Tougher skin. And claws, claws that could rip into reality and tear out its throat.

The spirits around her, between her soul and body, and surrounding the very school. The spirits that the elf hunter used to keep others from casting magic. The precious negative reality inside Louise told her to eat the spirits, feast upon them. The Nothing entity that part of her soul originated from, it shied away in disgust. It didn't want the gift it had given her at birth. The gift was fully hers now, truly taken and split from the Nothing it was birthed from. Together, she and the peace of Nothing transformed.

The void hungered for spirit and magic and the threads of reality itself. Boiling beast blood drove it and Louise passed her humanity.

She would kill the elf phantom. She would have its scent and hunt its origin down, then eat the real elf.

Her consciousness returned to her physical form. She opened her mouth and feasted upon the world.

Magic and spirit, warmth and coldness, it rushed into Louise's true body. No longer was her spirit severed from the flesh she was given sense birth. She was sitting in the chair, sword through her chest. She devoured the reality and spirits around her first, sucking it in with the speed of a vortex. She turned her mouth to try and catch the elf's soul as well.

The elf hunter let go of her blade and jumped away, an expression of horror on her despicably pretty features.

Louise stood, sword still in her chest, and took a step towards the phantom. Her jaw opened wider, wider than humanly possible, and sucked in more of the thing that made up the world. She grew, her muscles and insides bursting out in a sudden transformation. Blood, dark as the blackest of nights, showered the stage around her.

But in her moment of transformation, a familiar presence touched her soul. It was a kind touch, originating from the nightmare that once trapped her. A divine presence.

" _Louise, you don't want this. Calm the hell down, idiot girl."_ The presence of the moon, the consciousness of the nightmare itself, chastised her. He held her humanity together.

" _She hurt me, she hurt my familiar! I won't forgive her, I won't!"_ Louise screamed in her mind, body forming into what felt like a large beast. A lion that would prey upon reality. Something she might have fought in the nightmare. Something she gladly accepted now.

" _Stubborn soul!"_ He snapped back.

In a place split from reality, the place where her soul now resided, a young man with black hair and features reminiscence of the maid Siesta, walked up to her. He shook his head in a gesture of disappointment, then smacked her across the face. Now, having one's soul smacked by a god hurt, a lot. It also brought back clarity and Louise could think straight again.

Then she commanded her soul to smack him back. He stumbled and looked surprised. His surprise turned into a smile and she wanted to smack him again.

" _Go take care of that Seeker."_ He said, and faded.

Louise returned to the world fully, her mind cleared of its boiling rage. Her body held the form it morphed into, and she was momentarily disoriented. Her body had grown to the point she took up half the stage. She as big as a dragon!

The elf hunter, or Seeker, as her acquainted god had called the elf, was charging up a massive ball of lightning in her hands.

Louise could see wisps of spirits assisting Seeker's will. The eyes that lined her mind looked out upon the world, and they quivered at the sight of the wisps.

She growled at the spirits. _"I'll eat you, leave the phantom to me."_

The spirits ran away, wisps retreating far into the ground. The elf's electric energy crackled and dispersed. She gaped, wiggling her fingers as if trying to figure out what went wrong.

Louise felt a sudden pain in her hind leg. She whirled around and bit at whatever attacked her. It was Eileen, the damnable hunter doing what hunters did of course. Hunt beasts, and Louise had transformed into such a beast.

She swiped at the pesky hunter, annoyed the old lady would turn on her when there was an elf attacking them. Eileen rolled away, then shot her in the face.

As a beast, quicksilver bullets were especially painful.

Louise growled and swiped again at the hunter. Piercing pain ripped into her other side, and Louise turned to see some of the guards throwing spears at her.

 _Damnable fools!_ Louise turned away from her confused comrades and jumped off the stage at the now retreating elf.

Seeker rolled away at the last moment before Louise's massive weight could pin her. But the elf was still close enough for Louise to swipe at. Seeker ducked and got under Louise's barreled chest, her hand grabbing the sword still embedded in Louise. With a pull, and horrible ripping sensation, the elf retrieved her sword.

The pain was blinding, a white burning that consumed her consciousness for precious moments. Louise stumbled back, clutching her chest with a paw, whining at the terrible agony. The wound bled blackness between her distorted digits. She looked up from inspecting her wound, and the elf cut Louise across her muzzle.

Louise howled and jumped back, then shook herself from the pain.

The elf rushed in again, striking at her. Louise raised her arms and tried smashing Seeker into the ground. She missed, the elf dodging under her, and striking Louise's chest three more times.

The sword had changed as well, it's blade black and curved, with bold glowing patterns of eldritch tentacles etched into the metal.

Louise screamed and reared back on her hind legs. She clutched her chest again, wincing at the terrible pain the sword dealt. Pain erupted from her back, like nails hammering into her flesh. Louise twisted her body to see that the guards had thrown more spears.

She screamed and sucked in the essence of the world. The sudden influx of energy coursed into her and then out, throwing the elf back and expelling anything that was lodged into her. Her wounds healed and she clutched her head as her blood began to boil again.

Seeker attacked again, relentless as a hunter desperately trying to slay a beast. Louise swiped and grabbed the elf. She brought Seeker up close to her nose and memorized the elf's scent.

Seeker stared back into Louise's eyes as she struggled in Louise's grasp.

Louise squeezed the phantom, hoping to crush her.

A blur of black feathers cut Louise across the stomach and she dropped the elf in surprised agony. Without giving into the boiling beasthood, she could not fight properly in this form. She felt clumsy and everyone thought she was the one to be attacked now.

Her acquainted god seemed to be holding her wits to her, denying her the raw instinctual control she needed to properly fight. Her blood cooled, against her desire to let it steam and rage.

Seeker landed on nimble feet, ducking under another swipe from Louise's claws. Eileen quick-stepped passed the elf, shoving the elf with her shoulder. It threw Seeker's balance off and Louise smashed the elf into the earth. Seeker's phantom turned to dust, retreating away and forming out of Louise's reach.

Eileen spun and slashed at Louise's paws. The blades dug deep and nearly severed one of her digits.

Louise jumped over the hunter at the recently formed elf, swiping, and throwing the elf into the air. She caught Seeker in her jaws and bit.

The elf hunter's blade pierced Louise's tongue and she spat the elf out. More spears and gunfire ripped into Louise's side. She screamed, throwing anyone near her off their feet. Breathing in the essence of the world again, she healed the fresh wounds and growled. The elf was still standing, still fighting. Louise lunged again.

Seeker quick-stepped to the side, barely escaping. But it was not far enough.

Louise landed and rolled over the elf, feeling a satisfying crackle of breaking bones and hopped back on all fours. The elf had turned to dust and was slow to reform her phantom.

Heaving in deep breaths, Louise looked across the grassy field, the stage far away from her now. They had traveled quite a bit in the fast paced and chaotic battle.

The Students and the princess were being evacuated, leaving only the guards and some teachers behind. Louise remembered eating all the magic in the area, and realized that she had incapacitated any mage from casting spells. She spotted Amelia and Gilbert behind the guards, both holding a struggling Melody. But the detail that truly caught Louise's eye, was the broken, abandoned, figure lying in a pool of white blood. It reminded Louise of why she was desperately trying to banish the aggressive white phantom, and she returned her attention to the battle.

Guards circled her, shaking as they pointed spears. Eileen cautiously stepped around Louise, her face hidden by her mask.

And Seeker reformed from dust, rising to continue her attack.

Louise knew the elf's scent now. She needed to end this battle and somehow, somehow return to normal. Her heart tore itself at the thought. Normal? She was so close to returning to normal. Then that elf hunter, Seeker as the ascended good hunter called her, decided to ruin Louise's day. There was no returning to normal now. Her life was changed, and shattered.

Louise's blood boiled again and she reveled in its rage. Sucking in the essence of the world, filling the void of her soul, color and light faded around her. She held the magic of reality and burned it inside her lungs. Acting on instincts new to her, she blew, returning the essence as ignited incernating wind, a line of directed explosion, a path of nothing manifesting into something.

Seeker, the elf hunter, didn't even move out of the way.

Fire, destruction itself, incinerated the white glowing phantom. Only her sword remained.

Louise panted, eying Eileen and the guards.

Eileen reached up and removed her mask. "Louise?" The old woman asked, uncertain.

" _Fools!_ " Louise barked in reply.

Eileen held up a hand, motioning for the guards to back down. The hunter having originated from the nightmare understood what Louise had said. The guards nervously glanced at her, slowly backing away, scared to lose their life if they didn't have to.

Louise slowly, carefully, stepped past the guards, walking the path of burned earth. She approached the stage again, and looked down to her abandoned familiar. " _I'll_ _avenge_ _you._ " Louise growled, lowering her muzzle to the Doll's broken form. " _I don't know_ _who that_ _elf_ _was, or why she_ _attacked, but I'll find her, and I'll kill her._ "

Tears blurred Louise's vision. She bent her head and sobbed, her heart aching terribly. It hurt, it wasn't right, it wasn't fair, and it hurt. Emotions boiled inside Louise, chilling her blood into an icy cold. She wanted to curle up and cry, cry until she finally woke up from this terrible dream her life had become. All she wanted to be a mage, to be accepted by her society.

All she wanted was taken from her.

And she was close, so, so, so, so, so, very close to returning back to normal life.

Tabitha's dragon stepped up to Louise and nudged her. Louise growled at the wind dragon. " _Leave me alone!_ "

" _Big sister, I can help._ " The dragon growled back.

Louise wasn't too surprised she could understand the dragon. She was now a beast after all. " _How?_ " She demanded, skeptical that a simple dragon could truly help in this situation at all.

" _Pick up the Broken One, and follow me. My big sister, Charlotte, will bring clothes for us. I'll show you how to command the spirits to change you back to a human form."_

A dragon that could use nature magic? Well, Louise didn't really care at the moment. She grabbed the Doll's limp body, holding her in her massive paws like a broken toy.

" _Follow!_ " The dragon growled and took flight.

Louise looked across the academy lawn, seeing the terrified expressions of people that she had been desperately trying to convince that she was okay, that she was safe to be around. None of it mattered anymore. Apparently, an elf wanted her dead. And if the elf could attack using a phantom, then no one was safe around Louise. She turned and spotted the Princess, who's cheeks were stained with tears. It hurt to see the pain in Henrietta's eyes.

Louise jumped into the air and landed on the wall. Tabitha's dragon flew over the forest, flying in the direction of a nearby lake. Louise jumped again, disappearing into the woods to follow, the Doll clutched in one paw held tightly to her heart.

* * *

There was a big commotion outside. Fouquet the Master Thief walked out of the vault with the Staff of Destruction. For some reason, all the magical wards were disabled during the commotion. And the guards had been reassigned to protect the Princess. The thief wasn't really sure what caused the issue, but took advantage of the opportunity. Now, looking over the Staff of Destruction, she was very confused as to the weapon's design. It looked ridiculous! Who thought attaching giant saw blades at the end of mechanical stick would make for a good weapon design? What were the practical uses of this? Using the detachable stick to club someone over the head might work.

But her clients wanted to turn it into a magic focus. Maybe then it could actually be impressive.

* * *

 **This is pretty rough chapter here, but I hope you enjoyed it. I enjoyed writing this. But I'm terrible at battle scenes. Your regularly scheduled silliness will return shortly.**


	8. Chapter 7

" _When Tabitha finally arrived, she brought me supplies, clothes, and a well worn book titled, 'A guide to surviving as a Fallen Noble, for idiots.' I might have been insulted if I didn't feel it was true at the time. Besides, there were more important questions I wanted answers too. But Tabitha took Illococoo and left me alone, abandoned me within the woods beside that lake shore with all but a broken familiar as company. Illococoo did leave me a note, apologizing that we couldn't be friends. Obviously, I managed to build a friendship with her and Tabitha at a later date."_

* * *

Louise stared at her reflection and a monster looked back. The lake water distorted her image, softly quivering from the night's breeze. She opened her mouth and inspected the lines of sharp teeth and massive front fangs. Feeling rather nauseous, she turned away from the lake's edge, catching site of her terrifyingly long tail. She took the shape of a big cat she had never heard of. It felt like she was now something out of the nightmare, a cross between man and beast with long limbs. No wonder why she felt clumsy. This form was not natural.

Illococoo, as the dragon had introduced herself, rested by some trees overlooking the lake. She looked almost regal, bathing in the moonlight of the two moons. They had traveled farther than Louise first expected, and it took the rest of the day and into the evening to come to this lake.

Louise walked on sore paws to the dragon and tried her best to imitate the dragon's posture.

"It's curious, my limbs are shaped like yours." Louise said, resting her head over crossed arms. "Anyway, you're no ordinary dragon are you?"

Illococoo nodded.

"I've heared of your kind before. You're supposed to be extinct."

"We learned to hide. But I come from a far away place." Illococoo said, giving Louise a dragonic smile.

"So, you know how to change into a human?"

"Mmmph! Yes. I think I'm going to be the big sister here. I'll teach you." The dragon covered her muzzled and made a musical trumpeting giggle.

"Show me, please." Louise was too tired and emotionally exhausted to get angry at the dragon's attitude. All she wanted right now was to sleep in a normal body. Maybe, actually sleep. Not return to the Hunter's Dream or the nightmare.

Louise's soul was reunited to her born flesh, though she had changed her body. That was good, because without this form's strength and innate magic, the sword she was stabbed with would have killed her for good.

Though it was odd she managed to change Seeker's sword during her transformation as well. She remember noticing that the sword had been left behind when the elf hunter was finally banished.

The dragon looked up to the twin moons. "You weren't born of nature magic. But you can see them, and speak to them. I saw you threaten the spirits." Illococoo said, her voice sounding a bit sad. "You could do that again for now, but I'll teach you how to be polite."

Louise growled. "I don't need to be polite when damning myself." Her heart throbbed at the thought of her faith. What did that even matter anymore? "I'm sorry, I take that back. Compared to the vile magic that I've seen and even used, nature magic is as holy as Brimir's gifts. I won't be a nature mage. Especially not after today."

"One contract, that's all you need." The dragon said cheerfully.

Louise eyed Illococoo. "Spirits to change my form. What sort of spirits would those be?"

"Mmm…." Illococoo hummed, then her stomach growled. She blinked and slapped chops. "Are you hungry?"

"No, not particularly. Had a large meal of magic recently." Louise replied, still waiting to know what kind of spirits she needed to contract.

"Oh, yes! Your mouth turned into a black deepness that sucked in a lot of, a lot… Nevermind, the nature spirits." The dragon leaned over and took a big whiff of Louise. "Yup, you've got the scent of the moon, of abyssal deepness, and sleeping fitful dreams."

"I know of a moon spirit I might be able to ask." Louise pondered aloud. "A moon spirit can transform me?"

Illococoo rapidly shook her head. "You know a cosmic spirit? _Them?_ _!_ No, not them. Never them! They are not simple spirits, they're dangerous." Her voice turned into a fearful whisper. "Don't think to ever go to them for anything. Especially not for something so, so, truffle. Wait, trifle? Just, don't talk to them. Stop talking to any you've talked to, or you'll go mad!"

"You know about Great Ones?" Louise was now confused.

Illococoo growled. "Slow huntress! Yes I know what they are. Those that reside within starlight and moon reflection. Great dangerous spirits."

Louise pulled away from the angered dragon, surprised by the shift in Illococoo's tone.

The dragon looked up to the sky again and whined. "Speak no more of them, give no attention. That's what the elders had said." She bowed her lung neck and fell eerily silent. Perhaps to calm her nerves. Louise could smell the anger fade from Illococoo.

When Louise was ready to push the dragon, Illococoo looked at her, the sparkle returning in her eyes and shined bright.

"Dream spirits are what you need!" Illococoo said, suddenly cheerful, obviously trying to avoid further questions on her knowledge of Great Ones. "Or, head spirits. No, nightmare spirits? Brain spirits! The spirits in your brain."

"You've lost me." Louise sighed and looked away. She was too tired to deal with a scattered brain dragon. Even if that dragon could talk to her. Louise's curiosity to know what the dragon knew withered under the veil of emotional exhaustion.

"Talk to the brain spirits, you used brain magic for most of your transformation. Nightmares, and dreams. Those things that make up apart of the world. An, uhm, how do humans call it? An element."

Louise thought back to last night when she was with Henrietta and showed her dream magic. She understood what Illococoo was saying now. But that suddenly begged a question. "How many types of spirits are there?" Was nature magic and Brimir's gifts closely related?

"Lots!" The dragon replied, as if her vagueness was the clearest answer that need to be said.

"I'll figure that out later then, I guess." Louise scratched her ear, careful not to cut herself with her sharp claws. "Spirits of dreams and nightmares, I see. I can find those easily." Louise opened the eyes that lined her mind and searched for what she desired. They were apparently always there, tiny wisps in her brain. When she looked for them, they were obvious, yet without knowing to look for dream spirits, she would have never known they existed.

"So, what do I do?"

"Ask them to hide yourself, or return you to your human form." Illococoo said. "Like this! Oh wind spirits, veil me and transform my howling soul!"

Louise watched with all her eyes, enraptured by the sight of wind spirits swarming around the dragon in a bright flash. They used her own body and mind as a magic focus, manifesting her desire and will, to turn her body from dragon to human. It took little more than a few seconds. A girl with long hair and expressive curves stood where a dragon once had been. Most notably were three etched caryll runes in the valley of her breasts.

Illococoo shook her head, blue hair whipping about. "Wowohoho! Haven't done that days. I like how this form feels. Its different." She started hopping on her feet. "Ooh, ooh, human movement is fun! I should ask big sister if she'll take me dancing." The dragon girl grinned broadly at Louise. "Would you dance with me, little sister?"

Louise was trying to read the caryll runes etched into Illococoo, but gave up. She had so many questions for the dragon right now, particularly how the dragon fit into all this madness. Where the hell did this dragon even come from? Illococoo knew of Great Ones, feared them even, but had damnable caryll runes etched into her human form!

"Does Tabitha know about those?" Louise pointed at the dragon's chest.

The girl covered herself with an arm and blushed. "Oh, I haven't told her. Shh, she's sensitive about hers. I told her she needs to lay an egg. That's supposed to help, right?"

"Not _those,_ the runes!" Louise barked, standing on all four. Her hackles rose and she felt her blood steam in annoyance.

"My blood rites?" Illococoo cocked her head.

Louise opened her mouth and closed it, feeling dumb for trying to push forward with questions that didn't matter at the moment. She changed her mind on any interrogation of the dragon. Instead, she'd attempt to reverse her transformation. Turning away, Louise mumbled to herself, to the spirits that were in her head. "Okay you little blights, get to working on making me human again. Or I'll eat you." Just screw the contradicting exists of the dragon. Louise wanted to cry, and then sleep.

The spirits panicked at the threat of being consumed and rushed through Louise's body. She felt the nightmare reaching for her, attempting to take her soul again. Louise snapped at its vile tendrils, giving the magic from outside her reality pause. Within herself, she felt a familiar pit of deep emptiness stir. It was the precious peace of her that a strange entity of Nothing wanted to take when the Doll was attacked. The dream spirits and her gifted magic danced with another, swirling, and then consumed her body.

For a few seconds blackness erupted from the center of her being, engulfing her beastly form. Her body shrunk, and Louise stood on two feet again.

She was naked of course, but so was Illococoo. Louise felt relieved, and fell to her knees. "I did it." She said, sniffing as tears swam in her vision. "Thank you, I'm not sure what I might have done if I were stuck like that."

"In a scary nightmare form?" Illococoo knelt next to Louise and brought her into a close hug. The contact felt strange but so very warm and comforting.

Louise returned the hug. "My eyes, I can see that it's still within me. That I can just as easily turn back." She wanted to start crying, to release her pent up emotions, and sob until she fell asleep. Truly sleep.

" _Nom!"_

Louise felt one of the ears atop her head get nibbled. She yelped and pulled back from the hug, surprised at the sensation.

"You have a tail too, like the ghost you." Illococoo blatantly pointed out.

Louise closed her eyes and wiggled the ears atop her head. She knew if she looked at a reflection, what she would have seen. Her tail moved just as easily too. "Damn spirits did a half-ass job!" Louise growled, opening her eyes to look at her clenched fists.

Oddly, her hands and forearms lacked the fur and claws her phantom once had. Taking a peek at her feet, she wiggled her clawless toes. Those were fine too.

Her insight told her that the fur and claws would return when she desired them for battle.

"I want my tail in a human form!" Illococoo shook her fists in a childish tantrum. "Wind spirits, return just my tail please! I wanna be cute like little sister."

"It's not cute!" Louise snapped.

Illococoo winked at Louise. "Teehee."

"Don't tease me!" Louise snapped and brought her knees to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "I'm tired. I don't want to deal with stupid antics right now."

The blue haired girl lost her cheerful air. "I'm sorry."

"You don't want to talk about Great Ones." Louise almost smirked when Illococoo's face twisted into a look of disgust. "See! And I want to sleep. I've had a trying day." She covered her eyes and closed the inner eyes that lined her mind. "My familiar is severely hurt or possibly dead. I just, I wanted to be human so I can sleep, and cry properly."

"I'm sorry." Illococoo's voice was barely a whisper.

"I won't cry in front of a stranger." Louise sniffed, but opened her eyes and stared deep into Illococoo's. "I want your cooperation, I want your friendship. Talking to you after what happened today. You know things."

Illococoo turned her head away, her shoulders drooping. "Not as much as you assume."

"Please, I'll give you my trust, if you give me yours. Promise me, don't leave me alone tonight. I'll be in your debt, I am in your debt." Louise wasn't even sure what she was trying to say or ask anymore. "I won't get angry at your childish jokes. I'm sorry for yelling."

Her grief was finally catching up to her. It was hard to think. She accepted the stupidity and fogginess of her memories wrapping around each other in a tangled mess. "Hug me again, and don't you dare let go of me until I'm asleep."

"Yes little sister, I'll do that." Illococoo wrapped Louise in another warm embrace. The moons had moved so shadows cast over them, hiding them away from any spying eyes. "When big sister comes here, do you want me to wake you up?"

"No." Louise whispered, her jaw quivering as she let herself think on the events of the day one more time. It felt better to think like and feel human again. It felt like she had her sanity returned as opposed to the control and power of her nightmare form.

Illococoo started rocking Louise back and forth.

There was an advantage to being small. Louise could lose herself in being held. Her eyes, all her eyes, quivered behind their lids. The first sob twisted itself out from her lips.

* * *

They placed the noose around Flora's neck. She looked out over the crowd of mansion staff and guards, the people she had come to know since she was taken in as a mistress. Moonlight bathed the crowd, giving light upon this dreadful night. She accepted that being a mistress was her duty. But when the Count had her lover killed because Flora was supposedly only his, that was unacceptable. And so, Flora killed the Count after giving him one last tussle. It felt good to murder him.

She sighed. Her sister was in that crowd somewhere. Kos would be heart broken by this. At least the hanging would be a quick death. Oddly, Flora wasn't scared of dying. It felt like the end of a journey, a fun distraction. She wasn't sure if she really believed in the theory of reincarnation, but right now it was a rather comforting thought.

"Stop!" A feminine voice boomed over the mansion.

Flora looked up, surprised that someone might stand up for her. She was as guilty as any sinner. She murdered a noble in cold blooded revenge.

People gasped as a young woman wearing a fine dress and purple tinted hair landed on the stage next to the executioner. A noble, come here to save Flora? Guards wearing an unfamiliar uniform rushed into the gathered crowd and onto the hanging platform. Flora then saw her sister stumble onto the stage, white hair messy and unkempt as always. Did she run to another noble and make up lies to try and save Flora? This was a mess.

"Did this woman have a proper trial!" The stranger noble demanded the executioner.

He bowed to her. "No your highness, but she admitted to her crime. She murder Count Mott!"

"I'm aware of this. But these sorts of crimes need proper trials. What if she were covering up for an assassin, or if she were apart of a larger group? What if it her crimes were brought by insanity? These are important questions that need answers!"

Flora got onto her hands and knees and bowed her head to the anger princess. She remembered now, seeing portraits of the princess somewhere before. Her heart fluttered at the honor of the princess of her home defending her. Then her heart sank.

Obviously Kos must have told the princess lies. Terrible treasonous lies. Flora needed to defend her sister, come up with a story that she convinced her sister to say whatever lies Kos had spoken. They were commoners, and a quick execution was not the worst fate that could be given to them.

"Please, your highness!" Flora begged, noose still wrapped around her neck. "My sister, Kos, she must have lied to you. I am of sound mind. I am not apart of terrorists. It was revenge, I'm sorry, it was just. I just." Tears were breaking from her eyes and watched them fall into the wood panels of her execution platform.

"Silence prisoner, I will speak to you later. Guards, take this woman into custody, and Kos as well." The Princess's voice sounded terrible and sore. "I will be sending detectives here once I return back to the palace. Make sure they are received well."

Flora looked up and for the first time in her life, she looked upon royalty and met their eyes. Princess Henrietta's eyes were swollen and red, as if she had been crying recently for much time. Surely the Princess's grief was not caused by hearing of Flora's execution. Maybe the Princess didn't know nobles abused commoners easily. Did that bring the Princess grief? No, something else must have happened, and Kos just added to the her Highness's stress.

Flora wished the executioner had pulled that lever sooner. She bowed her head and whispered a prayer to Brimir, wherever he may reside.


	9. Chapter 8

" _When I slept, I returned to the Hunter's Dream. Within the dream the Doll was asleep and nothing I did woke her. So I refused to speak to anyone else, and spent the rest of my dreaming hours pushing my way through the tangled woods and killing vile snakes. If Melody was in the Hunter's Dream, I might have asked her what happened after I left. But of course, she wasn't." Miss Vallière roughly poked at my face here, and I'm taking note of this because she singled me out among my colleagues. This is harassment, history will remember Louise as a bully!_

* * *

"I want a sword." Louise said to the man behind the counter. She was dressed in the clothes Tabitha left behind, a hooded cloak and peasant's traveling dress. The jerk also left behind some money, with specific instructions not to gamble it away, plus a small note directing her to the finance section of her idiot's guide to surviving as a fallen noble.

The shopkeeper rubbed his chin and leaned down. "Ain't you a little small for a sword? Where's your mommy little girl?"

Louise clenched her teeth. She reached for her wand and pointed it at the shopkeeper. "I want a damn sword, something practical."

The fear and recognition that flashed over his expression was terribly sweet. Louise smiled and slid her wand back into her cloak's inner pocket. "R-right away. Y-you do have money, correct?"

"Yes, I'm not robbing you. I'm a mage not a criminal."

"W-would you like something brand new or used?"

"Preferably used, cheap, and a good history if you keep track of such things. One that's a magic focus or perhaps owned by a mage." Louise said, folding her arms and watched as the shopkeeper stepped out behind the counter.

He walked over to a bin of used goods and pulled out a rusty blade. Louise raised an eyebrow but the shopkeeper set it before her on the counter. "It'll be a hundred new gold."

"Too high." Louise picked the sword up, inspecting its surface. She could clean it up, the rust wasn't deep. More blemish than actual damage to the blade. Its edge was dulled, but not all swords were meant to be sharp, or so she had read.

"A hundred new gold, Miss-not-a-criminal." The shopkeeper must have found his bollocks.

Louise ignored his indignant attitude and continued her inspection of the sword. "What's the history of this blade?" She could feel something within the blade, a strange sense she didn't have before summoning her familiar. It felt alive. To her satisfaction, she also detected that the sword was clearly a magic focus.

"A guy came by few months back. Weird fellow, foreigner I think. He was a mage like yourself, non-noble. Kid, I'm seriously when I say this. He glowed white, strangest thing I ever saw." The shopkeeper seemed to calm down and realized Louise really wasn't a threat.

 _A white glow? Founder, where do these phantoms come from? Wait, did he call me a kid again!_

She kept her temper under control and turned her mind to how that could be practical. Her childish demeanor could be useful. If people underestimated her, then that would mean she could surprise them. That was a valuable lesson she learned in the nightmare. Surprising an enemy was often the best and easiest way not to die a painful death.

"I've glowed red a few times, its odd magic." She frowned and rethought his words, mulling them over in her head. "You said it was a man? Not a woman?"

"Yes?"

Louise turned the sword over in her hand. It felt familiar to her. Almost intimately. She opened her inner senses and saw the entity that slumbered within the blade, and knew the secret mechanical workings of the blade itself. It was a trick weapon, the design kin to that of Yharnam Hunters. "And this mage, he sold this blade to you and you haven't been able to get rid of it at the price you want?"

The shopkeeper grumbled but nodded.

"I do like this blade. Needs a little touching up. Why don't you bring it down to, say, seventy five gold?" Louise wasn't practiced in haggling but hoped that was a reasonable request.

"Eighty five gold, young'un. Nothing less."

Louise pursed her lips. She took a step back and swung the sword, chanting a dream spell through the blade. Wisps of light streamed off the rusted blade, and a sense of tranquility settled over the room. "I'll take it." She stepped to the counter and paused. "You wouldn't happen to remember any other describing features of this glowing man?"

"Oh, interested? Maybe I have a drawing, thought it real strange. But you'd have to pay for that information." The shopkeeper grinned at Louise.

"Show me the drawing, I don't need to buy your likely trashy 'artwork.'"

The shopkeeper glared at her but didn't make any angry retorts. He reached under his counter and pulled out a large, and worn, black leather tome. Opening it near the end, he spun the book around and pushed it to Louise.

She nearly dropped the sword in shock. What he showed her was a field of beautifully sketched flowers, rolling into the night with the twin moons high in the sky. A woman, almost a ghostly figure, stood in the center of the picture clutching flowers and smiling happily back at Louise. The shading of the sketch brought it to life, black and white with soft grays. The sketch didn't need any color, for itself was a beautifully worked masterpiece.

"That's my daughter. A noble man took her about a decade back as a mistress, died giving birth to his damnable son." The man said bitterly and shut the book. "Five gold to see the picture of the glowing man, twenty five to have it."

"I'm sorry for your loss, and for the insult." Louise wanted to see that beautiful, and sad, picture again. She looked up at the shopkeeper again, not seeing a stingy peasant but the person. He was an artist of notable skill, and here he was selling swords. "What are you doing here, why aren't you living off your artwork? That was, beautiful." She felt her cheeks flush, and her tail squirmed under her skirt. She calmed herself, but kept his gaze.

"You must be new to living like us plain folk." The man said, a glint in his eyes.

Louise caught herself. Despite the man's artistic touch, he had biases towards nobles, and that could easily transfer to mages in general. She tightened her jaw and narrowed her brow. "You sell information, and draw people's faces."

The man folded his arms and smirked. "Aye, and I have a perfect memory. I see for what you are, a run away."

"Guess I can't stick around in this town. Founder!" Louise cussed, pulling her hood over her face some. "A hundred gold for the picture and sword." She tossed a small purse onto the counter.

The man eagerly opened the pouch and poured the money out onto a scale. He nodded after finding the right counter weights for a hundred gold.

Her first interpretation of the man was wrong. He hadn't shown her fear, he showed her what she wanted. She needed to learn that people would lie to her, and try and trick her with their expressions and reactions. She would need to keep her eyes open at all time, keeping track of little details. This encounter could likely be damning.

"How much money do I have to pay to keep my face out of that book of yours?"

"Ahh, that's priceless my dear. What I see with my eyes is for me to do with. Unless you have some sort of spell that makes me forget your face. But then, you're not a criminal right?" He leaned forward, exaggerating his power over her.

Louise smirked. "I have a spell that gives you terrible dreams. Nightmares of your own creation, a curse that won't end until you die." Of course it was partially a bluff. She did manage a nightmare inducing spell in an attempt to make herself have regular dreams within the nightmare itself. It was a failure, but a fine discovery. The curse wore off after one night. She was still trying to figure out how to give herself proper dreams.

"You're not selling the part about you not being a criminal little girl." The shopkeeper raised his chin and looked down on Louise. "Besides, if you're a run away, you won't be getting too far unnoticed with that coffin you carried in here."

Louise cringed and look at the coffin holding the Doll's broken body. "Give me the damn picture!" She snapped, thrusting an open hand out for him.

He snorted, but opened his sketch book again, flipping a few pages past the one of his dead daughter, and tore out a sheet of paper. He handed it to Louise and she inspected its sketch.

The shopkeeper was as skilled in drawing an ethereal glow as he was a field of intricately and detailed flowers. The man on the picture was bald, human, and had a kindly smile. Was it a coincidence that another phantom came to this shop and gave the shopkeeper a sword that wouldn't have sold until Louise came along and needed it? She was getting an irritating sense of being played with. Knowing that there were beings of greatness, it wasn't unreasonable to assume some of those gods might have foreseen Louise coming to this shop.

So who was this man, why leave a sword Louise desired? She didn't like that she was falling into a path of predetermined fate. It meant there were beings that expected Louise, and they knew she would have been troubled after Seeker attacked.

Louise ground her teeth, her the insides of her head quaking. Such gods might have sent Seeker. Her insight made connections and she was confident that Seeker's attack must have been ordered. A phantom doesn't appear with accuracy without proper preparations.

She needed to remind herself there were multiple Great Ones. If one of these entities wanted Louise dead, then the man in the picture must work for one who wanted Louise alive. It wouldn't make sense to leave a desirable sword in a shop a few months before Louise came by.

Questions and secrets, damnable plots. Louise was beginning to feel like a toy.

"Thanks." She said after her moment in her own internal thoughts. She finished memorizing the man in the sketch and she folded it up. The artist of said sketch moaned at her abuse of the beautiful drawing. Pocketing the picture, Louise accepted her change and took her sword. "Pleasure doing business. If anyone asks, I left the country." Louise threw the remaining change of her wallet, fifty gold pieces, back at the man.

He chuckled.

Louise walked to her coffin, unlatching the lid and slipped her new sword within.

What she'd like to be able to do was stick the coffin, Doll, and all her supplies in a pocket between reality. She knew the Doll could so such things.

An odd sensation came over her and she pulled out her wand. What happened next was instinctual, an awakening to her simple desire. The words were long winded for a spell, but it granted her wish. Casting it, the coffin and its contents disappeared within the abyssal hole inside herself. Like her claws or the Nightmare Form, as she had come to call it thanks to Illococoo, she sensed she could retrieve whatever was in that abyssal hole almost instantly.

"What was that?!" The shopkeeper exclaimed.

Louise smiled. "I have no idea, just sort of happened. Handy, I could rob your whole store with a spell like that." She glanced at him, making sure he understood her implication behind her words. "That extra tip keeps what I just did quiet as well. _Nyyaa?_ " She gave him a cute noise and a wink.

He sputtered as she left.

That last bit of being flirtatious and threatening felt good. Louise stepped down the street with a skip and a bounce. Whatever posturing they had within the shop, she had won. Well, her pride won, her purse was considerably lighter.

* * *

"You didn't bring her back?!" Kirche yelled. She had forced Tabitha to talk, and the answers were not pleasant.

"The elf phantom, she's too dangerous. She hunts for Louise."

"All the more reason why we need Louise here so we can keep that girl safe!" Kirche had realized how much Louise had changed since summoning the Doll. She had fantastical day dreams of having a mighty rival that could control the powers of turning into a beast and defeat an elf. It gave Kirche a purpose to strive towards, a worthy competition. Her fire against Louise's cursed magic.

And it was ruined!

"The elf hunts for Void Mages." Tabitha said, her voice hitching at the end.

"What?" Kirche put her hands on her hips. Hadn't the Doll described Louise's born affinity as something terrifyingly strange? Nothing manifest? Before Tabitha could clarify, Kirche nodded. "Okay, so that makes Louise religiously important." She threw her hands into the air. "How would you know the elf hunts for Void Mages specifically? Have you seen her before?"

"Yes. She murdered my uncle and his familiar." Tabitha looked to the floor. "I wanted to know why. So I sought out help from ancient spirits I shouldn't have spoken too. They told me who the elf was, and why the elf seeks Void Mages. That elf is dangerous."

Kirche dropped her hands, letting them flop. "You're serious. You had an uncle as a Void Mage, and then he died?"

Tabitha nodded.

"So that's it? You left Louise because you're scared?" Kirche said, and found the notion infuriating. "Coward!"

Tabitha gasped and looked into Kirche's eyes. The bluenette glared, then turned away and stomped to her bed. They were in Tabitha's room, Tabitha's little sister sitting on the bed's edge.

Illococoo had her hands to her mouth, her eyes flickering back and forth between Kirche and Tabitha. "Don't call her a coward. She's very brave. But, that elf is bad." Illococoo nodded. "Very bad."

Kirche waved a dismissing hand. "Oh, so you know all about that elf too? Mind telling me why the elf is so dangerous? If it weren't for Louise sucking away all the magic in the area, we could have easily taken on that elf!"

"Well-" Illococoo started but stopped when Tabitha sat down next to her. Illococoo kneaded her fingers into her dress, eyes flicking back and forth again between Kirche and her sister.

Kirche rubbed her eyes. She hadn't slept the night before, having joined in the search parties for Louise. There was a clear trail for a while until it disappeared over a cliff. Louise could move fast, being a giant cat monster and all.

"So what, you left Louise on her own. She was attacked by an elf, turned into a monster, ran away chasing Syphlid." Kirche did notice how Illococoo stiffened at the name. "And left Louise some supplies, a handy book, and money. Do you really think, Louise, proud, determined to be the best noble. Almost brainwashed Louise. That Louise, Knows how to survive on her own? What if she goes into a town, and is attacked again? What if innocent people die? That one guard died."

Tabitha bowed her head. "You're asking me to fight a being that's been killing Void Mages for thousands of years." She grabbed Illococoo's hand, and Kirche saw tears begin to fall. "Of course I'm scared of something like that. You don't know, you don't understand. You can't win against the Seeker. There are spirits as old as the world that are scared of her."

"Well make me understand, Tabitha!" Kirche snapped, knowing that her anger hurt her friend. "What do you know? I need details. This all sounds very important, and the fact you kept it from everyone is practically a crime!"

"Seeker, that is her title. She is the reason there haven't been Void Mages sense the Founder. The Spirits I spoke to told me she's cursed like Louise is. Seeker has the backing of other ancient spirits, and they want to keep void magic off our world." Tabitha squeezed her sister's hand tightly, her knuckles turning white. Illococoo winced, but did not complain. "Do you understand how much bigger all of this is? This isn't political, or petty rivalries. I left Louise because I didn't want to kill her. But if I killed her..." Tabitha grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut. "If I killed her, it would have been for the better of us all. But I couldn't, I refused to murder her."

Kirche couldn't believe what she just heard. Tabitha sincerely believed that killing Louise was the best solution to the problem. But, Tabitha couldn't kill Louise, she wasn't that kind of person. Suddenly, the hot angry fire that burned in Kirche's heart, blew away in a wispy smoky haze.

"Tabitha." Kirche said, stepping up to her dear friend and kneeling before her. "I'm sorry."

It occurred to Kirche that perhaps Tabitha had never spoken of this before. That she was opening up to Kirche, being as honest as she dared. "You don't have to tell me everything. I won't push you, I swear." She reached up and held Tabitha's face in her hands. "Your my friend, and I love you. Please, you're right. That does sound out of our league."

"There's a but here. I can _see_ it coming." Tabitha whispered, her jaws trembling.

"Yes. It wasn't right. I don't know what the right solution is, but abandoning Louise who is the center of this craziness? That's not right. We're nobles, we have to lead the weak, for we are the strength of humanity. If its ancient spirits that we're against, this is something we should talk about with others."

"No." Tabitha tried shaking her head.

Kirche held it firm.

"No." She mumbled, pulling away.

Kirche pursed her lips. "Yes."

"No!" Tabitha yelled, opening her eyes.

Kirche saw hundreds of pupils staring back at her, a sea of black stars. She stumbled back, shocked. In the instant that she had blinked, Tabitha's eyes were normal again.

There was more to Tabitha than Kirche had ever believed possible. Like a book with the wrong cover, or a well made mask. Who was this girl that Kirche called a friend?

It didn't matter. Louise had mastered weirdness in the past few weeks easily, yesterday being the peek. Tabitha was always a little strange.

Kirche stood and pointed a finger at Illococoo. "You, go get that Melody girl."

"What? No, you're upsetting big sister. You leave and let her rest some." Illococoo hugged Tabitha close to her breasts. A comforting gesture perhaps.

"Go." Tabitha breathed, pulling away from her sister.

"You sure?" Illococoo's voice cracked with worry.

Tabitha nodded, rubbing at her eyes. "I know what's coming. Go."

Illococoo stood, uncertainly, but stood and obeyed her sister. Kirche nodded at the loyalty of such a sibling. She watched the blue haired girl walked out of the room, meeting Illococoo's worried gaze when she passed.

Minutes went by, silence blanketing the room. Kirche wanted to push for more answers. Tabitha's sincere fear held her tongue.

"So." Kirche said, deciding that a change of topic was the best solution to the fight. "Who are you, and who is she? Illococoo isn't your little sister, that I'm sure of."

"You'll respect my wishes of secrecy?" Tabitha whispered.

"You've told me the biggest secrets already. What could possible beat that?" Kirche said, thankful that Tabitha was still in the mood to be open and honest.

"It doesn't top what I said, but it'll still flip your view of me." Tabitha's voice grew stronger. Perhaps because they weren't arguing over a topic that scared her. Kirche could see the relief in Tabitha's expression. It warmed her that they could change the subject and keep talking.

"Try me." After seeing the hundreds of pupils in Tabitha's eyes, what else could the girl surprise her with?

Tabitha took a long minute before she answered. Kirche waited patently, and was rewarded with another mind boggling surprise.

"Well, I'm royalty..."

* * *

Melody winced as Amelia stuck the needle into her arm. "This'll bring back the red glow right?" The four of them that had stepped over into Louise's world lost their red glows after the Doll was taken away by Louise. Or perhaps it was because the Doll was killed? It was something that broke them free of the nightmare. Now they were stuck on this side as normal people.

"No, not exactly. This is how hunters were connected to the dream originally, when our city wasn't a nightmare. I don't like you being our test subject for this. But Gilbert and my blood is too tainted by beast-blood." Amelia said, reaching up to touch the antlers that grew out from the back of her head. "You'll have to sign a contract like the hunters once did."

"And this is signing that contract right?" Melody asked. She desperately attempted to keep her heart calm. They had talked about it in depth before hand, but she wanted to ask her questions again. It comforted her to get the same answers. Despite some of those answers being scary themselves. But she was a brave girl now, she had to be to honor her father and mother.

"You'll officially sign the contract when you die for the first time."

Eileen had left with the Princess to answer questions at the palace. So, Eileen couldn't be here for this. She left plenty of blood for Melody though, which was good. Dieing didn't sound pleasant at all though. Still, being a semi-immortal hunter was a pretty cool benefit.

"I'll hallucinate at first right?"

"Something like that, if I remember correctly." Amelia started the transfusion. "Remember, just think of it as a bad dream. Your father was well known in the church, despite his foreign heritage and traditions. Your blood is strong, child. Have faith in the good blood."

"May the good blood bless me." Melody nodded at the ex-vicar and closed her eyes.

A knock came at the door as Melody was drifting away.

"We're busy, come back later, please." Amelia called over her shoulder.

"Oh, I'm Illococoo, Tabitha's little sister. I was sent to get the youngling-uh-girl, Melody."

"She's having a medical procedure."

"I smell it. You're signing a contract!" The door opened and a long blue haired woman stepped in. She slapped her hands to her mouth, and fell to her knees. "Ooh spirits!"

Melody tried sitting up, but Amelia pushed her back down. "Stay calm, I'll take care of her." The antlered woman turned away and Melody turned her head to see the stranger, Illococoo, tremble.

"You know what this is?"

The blue haired girl nodded.

Melody was beginning to fade.

"I wasn't aware this world's inhabitants understood our ways. Would you mind speaking with me on what you know? It could be of great benefit to us all."

"No. It's not my place."

"Oh, but this is the first time I've met you, and you have such a peculiar smell about you. Something I think I whiffed back before Louise's departure."

"You know, I'll leave you two to your contract signing. I gotta go back and be with my sister."

"Oh no, child. Stay."

Melody fell away, returning to the nightmare she had once called home.


	10. Chapter 9

" _Jessica was the one who found me sleep walking in the streets at night. She took me to her tavern and explained why I was there when I woke. She offered me a job, and despite her eccentric father, I accepted. I know I should have been running far away, out of the country even, but I couldn't bring myself to actually leave. I had fancies about hiding as a commoner, determined to find some place in our society. My plan was, as soon as Seeker attacked again, I'd run away to the next town, rinse and repeat, until I mustered the courage to go hunting after Seeker. I_ _was_ _procrastinating."_

* * *

The Doll was having a good dream, a lovely dream. One where she took care of Hunters, so many people to talk to and support. It fueled her purpose, her drive, her desire. She loved hearing of the Hunter's exploits and adventures. And they were kind to her, and didn't harm her dignity. She even felt like she was close to some of the hunters. A kiss, a gentle kiss, something filled with love more than lust. It brought her joy, it brought her excitement, it made her feel alive.

The dream turned to dust and faded. She let the memories drift away, knowing that such thoughts were mere fancies. In the dreams place, she found herself in a dark abyss.

She wasn't alone though. There was another, like her, but not, within the blackness.

"Hello?" She asked, her soul itself speaking out to commune with the other presence.

She felt the touch of another spirit, crafted by hand like her own. "Hey there, darlin'. You're supposed to be my partner?"

"Partner?" The Doll asked, confused by the male spirit's voice.

"Yeah, partner. You're a Gandálfr. I'm your sword." The spirit said, his voice dripping with good humor. "You know, I'm kind of old. I don't remember very well, but I'm sure I've never met something like you before. What are you?"

What was she? "I am a Plain Doll created to care for Hunters." The Doll replied automatically. She caught herself, realizing that she was actually speaking with something kin to her. "I am living focus of Elderitch design, crafted for love and cultivation."

"Ooh! I see. Well, I'm a disruptor, designed to dispel magic and flesh. But I _can_ be used as a focus." The sword spirit replied rather cheerfully. "Got a name aside from Plain Doll? I'm Derflinger, you can call me Derf."

"You may call me whatever you desire." The Doll replied.

"Doll, Darlin', Doll, I'm fine with it. You're a little broken, did you know that?"

"I was attacked." The Doll internally frowned and tried moving her body. Her soul was attached to the wood frame, but most of her Paleblood had drained out. "I'm currently useless." Saying this openly brought a terrible sense of aching in her soul.

"Oh darlin' don't be like that! Our master will fix you up. I'm sure. I felt her touch before being placed in this pocket dimension. Rather cramped in here. What am I pressed up against, its soft compared to the rest of your wooden frame."

The Doll blushed, a programed reaction when faced with such a question. "You are sword, do you care for such things as breasts?"

"Ooh, so you had other purposes."

"Yes."

"Sorry to hear that. Tough existence?"

The Doll pondered his words. "Yes, it has been a difficult journey thus far. But when there is love in that contact, it is pleasing."

"Oh, so you're romantic sort. Ain't got much experience with personal romance, but I do like hooking my partners up with someone else. Makes me happy when they're happy, you know what I mean?"

"Yes, I do." The Doll enjoyed this encounter. It was refreshing to be speaking to someone who thought like her. They were tools built for specific purposes, and bringing satisfaction to their owners brought satisfaction to themselves. With the exception of owners abusing them, using them against their intended purpose. Like how many Hunters simply took what they wanted, lacking love. She was curious as to the difference of how Derflinger thought. "What hurts you?" He knew what hurt her.

"Ooh, wrong doing. Spilling the wrong blood, breaking the wrong spells. I'm meant for goodness and protection! Not murder, no, I'm not very fond of murder." His disembodied voice was filled with a deep sadness.

She reached out with her soul and hugged him.

He recoiled. "Woah, don't do that! I'm, I'm not very used to such intimate contact, Darlin'. I'm more of the stab and slice, sever soul from flesh."

She distanced herself from him. "My sincerest apologies."

"Wait. I mean. It's not that I didn't like that, I'm mean, it was different. I just, never felt warm like that before." His soul radiated a sense of blushing. "Ooh, you left bits of you on me!"

"I'm a little broken at the moment, my soul is stretched. I can try and pick myself off before the ethereal energy becomes yours." She tentatively tried seeking what she left on his presence. A metaphorical pinching motion of her imagined hand trying to pick at the energies she left on him.

"No, no, it's okay. May I keep it? I'll give you some good old sense of fight in return. Maybe you won't be broken so easily next time." Derf said, his aura of blushing growing stronger.

Now she was beginning to blush. This sounded awfully intimate for someone she just met.

But they weren't human and their spirits were communing directly with one another. Their encounter was already the most intimate that she could think possible. Images and sensations of butterflies drifted through her being. The experience was new and she was a little eager at the idea of more fight in her. The runes that were etched into her soul held a power that demanded she seek to protect her master.

New, it was new, she wanted to be renewed. Could she cultivate her strength, so she could care better for her master?

She sought out Louise's heart and mind, feeling it all around her. There was a turmoil of pain, confusion, passion, pride, embarrassment, and ambition. Other human emotions mixed and twirled within the girl, dancing, one standing out more than the other as time passed. Louise's emotions were ups and downs, a song that constantly sang, a voice lowering then rising. One of Louise's thoughts that the Doll could decipher was Louise's worry and desire for her familiar, for the Doll.

"Yes, embolden me, please." The Doll declared to Derflinger. Her master needed her, and when she recovered, she would not be taken so easily again.

He reached out to her and she felt a tempest of energies surge over her soul. It was empowering, changing her sense of purpose and feelings. If her body worked properly, she might have gasped. In return, she split a piece of her steadiness to him, her tenderness, her care. Together they set aside words and communed with feeling and will, exposing one another to each others very existence.

He gave her more soul than she returned, insistent, and determined to empower her strength. She felt that the increase of her spirit was kin to that of channeling blood, but with soul itself. She accepted the increases, placing them in the parts that defined her dexterity, her vitality, and her strength.

Pulling apart some time later, she felt the same but not. It was like the first day of her awakening. New and fresh, perspective changed ever so slightly.

Time had passed during their intimacy. It was like a kiss, a kiss unlike any the Doll had ever received before. She liked whatever they had done. Within the closeness, much changed inside of her. She felt more alive. It was exciting! She wanted to move, but her body was shattered.

"Is this where we have the pillow talk?" Derf joked, likely sharing in her feelings of refreshed change. Though he had given more, he did receive some of her. She noted that he altered some of his definitions, rearranging himself for better channeling of will and focus of magic.

"I'm not sure. We might have skipped a few courtings." The Doll flirted back with the sword. She laughed, and it radiated out from her being into the surrounding space. She was still broken of course and had trouble containing her amusement. It felt good to have done something invigorating, even when she was useless. So perhaps, when she was fixed, if she was fixed, she could do better.

"Darlin,' what is the purpose of a blade with a heightened sense of caring?" Derf asked, seeming to need to work through his new emotions.

"It takes care and measure to carve wood, or dance in the air for an audience to entertain. I would gladly use your blade for open expression." The Doll thought of herself dancing with a sword in her hand, perhaps slicing balls and ribbons of dream magic cast by Louise.

"I'm still a practical model! But that idea doesn't seem so bad now." Derf vibrated sounds of satisfaction. "I figure most of these new feelings you shared would be more of a thing between just us though."

The Doll wondered and let herself stir up a quick day dream. "Is this a formal request, Derflinger the Disruptor?"

"Why yes, I do believe so, Darlin'." Derf cheerfully replied.

"I accept." What the Doll felt in her touch with the sword's spirit was a good soul. Despite his opposite to her original purpose, after their touch she was confident she would enjoy his company.

* * *

They were two souls of a coin now, connected with another. Days had passed, but they were not bored with the passing of time. Immortality taught patience. With good company and such close intimacy, the Doll felt her heart growing for the sword as she assumed his heart did for her. It was an odd thing, a romantic feeling brought on by circumstance. She wasn't sure what she was going to do with the part of her that was growing. Love did strange and magical things to a soul. Humans barely understand the power behind such a changing force. It could be dangerous, yes, for it could drastically alter one's perception.

For a soul, perception was reality. One could convince themselves of anything, and their will would alter the fabric of their mind. When such alterations were sever, it was called insanity. When they were gentle like that of two souls communing, it was called growth. So they grew, and they communed, and grew some more. It was a wonderful time, romantic and blissful. Like vines intertwining together up a lattice work, growing around each other in knots.

When Derflinger was removed from the space of void within Louise, the Doll was lonely for the short time he was gone. She realized how dangerous such want could be and redoubled her efforts in healing her body. Wooden flesh healed, and the soft parts of her, inside and out, were the first to grow back first.

When Derf returned, he was polished and sharpened. He talked of how the master was aware of him but he couldn't speak with her yet. Without the Doll outside with Derf, he couldn't speak. They needed to be upon the same plane for his consciousness to be fully restored. It was the way he was designed. He was meant to be with a Gandálfr. Without a Gandálfr's presence, his ability to commune was denied. It made telling Louise that the Doll was okay and recovering all that more difficult. When Louise retrieved the Doll and Derf at the same time, then they might be able to speak with her. For now, their master was ignorant to what occurred within the pocket dimension.

The Doll tried focusing on her reflection, the self of her being connected to the Hunter's Dream. It too was like a body and had healed whatever wounds that were reflected during the attacked. But that part of her was hard to control. She could twitch a finger within the Hunter's Dream, but she couldn't do much more than that. Her consciousness couldn't transfer fully, her spirit severed like Louise's had once been. Did the Doll's master feel this same sense of frustration?

Perhaps a different solution was needed. A slow healing of reconnecting out of practice and determined will. Using the element of the mind, of dreams and nightmares, the Doll focused on healing and meditation. Slowly, she forced open a path between the plane of existence her soul resided upon and the Hunter's Dream. It was a hard process, not defined by the amount of willpower one had, but the desperation and tenaciousness of that will. Like learning to walk again, the Doll learned to control the extension of her within the Hunter's Dream.

The Doll finally opened her eyes in the dream world she called home. Struggling, she moved each of her limbs, every motion feeling as if it were slow and held down by a great weight. No one noticed her roll over from the spot she had been resting at. Not at first.

One arm in front of the other, knees scraping the ground. The Doll crawled off her little ledge, her favorite spot within the dream, and to the stairs. She made it a few more feet before a resident of the Hunter's Dream found her.

"Miss Dolly, you're alive!" Melody's youthful voice said in an excited pitch.

The Doll looked up to the girl and found Melody's attire surprising. The girl was wearing tailored hunter's garb for her size, a rifle spear strapped to her back and two hunter's pistols on holstered on her hips. The Doll thought how amusing it was that the little hunter would seek to distance herself in battle.

"I am not so well." The Doll said, still on her hands and knees. She was tired, and speaking was difficult.

"Ooh, go back and rest some more than. You're recovering from being hurt, right?"

The Doll mustered a nod and slowly lowered herself onto the steps. It was a rather uncomfortable position.

"Well, I guess that means you need someone to carry you back. I hope you didn't mind, but I've been killing beasts and channeling my bloodtinge while you've been asleep. I'm getting really good at shooting them in the face and, uh, doing that thing that the elf did to hurt you."

The Doll wasn't offended by Melody's tactics. For a child, that was possibly the best she could manage. "Louise." The Doll croaked, focusing herself on the Hunter's Dream. "She's here?"

Melody shook her head, blond ponytail waving side to side. "No. It's been a few days now. She returns every night, I think when she's asleep. But she leaves for the nightmare right away, and doesn't stop to talk to anyone. I can't follow her, she's avoiding us."

"Foolish heart, the young hunter should rely on her allies and friends." The Doll understood that Louise must be scared of hurting her friends by proximity. Still, within the Hunter's Dream, Louise should be safe to speak with those that could commune here.

"I'll shoot her and make her talk to me next time she comes in. I'll tell her you're getting better, and that she should come back to her school."

The Doll sighed. "Don't force her, don't beg her to return. Let her walk alone in the waking world. She's scared and confused."

"But she shouldn't stop talking to me!"

"Yes." The Doll nodded, feeling very sleepy. "Be a good companion, a friend, show her love here within the Hunter's Dream. Support her from afar." The Doll took in one last breath of the place she called home, appreciating the scent of the moon and of flowers and age. The aroma filled her with joy and nostalgia. "I'm going to nap now."

"Get well soon, take care of Louise." Melody leaned down and wrapped her arms around the Doll. The child squeezed the Doll in a little hug, paused, and then lifted her up.

The Doll was asleep before Melody set her back on the ledge she enjoyed slumbering at.

* * *

Louise stood at the bottom of a lake. It was beautiful down here and she didn't ever want to leave. This place, full of serenity and nothing. She liked it. It felt as if she belonged in wide open spaces. The giant bug with flowers growing from its body gave it a mysterious touch as well.

It was about three days since she arrived here. The things outside this place within the nightmare were scary and gross. Louise fought through a city of madness, tangled woods, and snakes. She hated snakes now. Even when she tried returning the snake's humanity, they turned into perverted half snake half man weirdos. She remembered a folk tale speaking of such beings, Naga they were called. Louise turned the snake men and women into Naga. And they were perverts and easily distracted. She wasn't bringing any of them to the Hunter's Dream. They could stick in their stupid woods with the other snakes.

"Rom, why is everything I do end with weird results?" Louise asked the pretty spider.

Rom didn't reply. She was a quiet creature, but cute. Louise liked Rom, the spider of Byrgenwerth hadn't attacked Louise when she entered the lake bed. She knew to progress further in the nightmare, she needed to get Rom to lower her veil. Rom was doing a good thing, she was trying to protect people from the truly terrifying aspects of the nightmare.

What was a good way to get a slow thinking Great One to listen to her? She read a few books on who Rom used to be. A fantastic scholar that was ascended into greatness. Technically, by other books definitions, it also made Rom a Kin. Louise had met a few of the Kin, people who ate brains and those covered in many eyes, like a fly. Louise didn't want to know what would have happened to her if the fly people actually grabbed her, but they were easy to take care of. She did know what it was like to be grabbed by one of the braineaters. A shiver ran down her spine at the memory. It took her insight, forcefully slurping it from her head.

Rom nudged Louise, saving her from falling into a flash back.

"Thanks." Louise said, rubbing at her blurry vision. She couldn't do much for the eyes inside her mind from crying. Insight despite its dangers, felt precious to hold. She was fine giving insight away in order to invade her home. By spending insight, there was a purpose to its release. But having it stolen from her was terrible and traumatizing.

Not all Kin were bad, especially after a good cleansing explosion. Louise didn't understand her magic, but was learning to master its results. The fly people turned into fairies. They were a bit ditzy and easily scared, running away from Louise before she could speak to them and attempt to bring them to the Hunter's Dream.

Brainsuckers turned into slime like people. They were easily confused and scared. Louise didn't have the desire to chase after them when they squeezed into tight spaces to run away from her. She had seen one while passing through the Cathedral Ward, a slime man curiously harassing one of the giants.

Louise wondered if she'd need to transform each and every afflicted soul within the nightmare. Perhaps there was a way to return humanity to all the denizens this place held captive. She noted that those with beast-blood gained most of their humanity back, looking much like normal humans with a few beastly traits such as extra fluffy ears and a tail. Most of Yharnam turned into an ethnicity like Gilbert. But some actually gained their full humanity back, looking like an average person.

"I've a lot of work to do. More secrets to uncover, different people to cleanse." Most of the folks she transformed ran away, and none wanted to come to the Hunter's Dream. They expressed their hatred towards Hunters with a passionate fury. Louise had wondered where they were running off to. Apparently it was a clinic owned by a woman named Iosefka. After Louise was done here, she'd need to search for this clinic herself and meet the doctor who accepted those Louise 'cured.'

The lake bed was a tranquil place. It felt nice to rest here while she slept. It was the closest she could get to being within a peaceful dream, Rom her only company. But she needed to move on, and bring an end to this tragic nightmare.

Louise faced Rom and came to a decision. "I'm sorry, but the way you are right now makes talking a little difficult. This might hurt." Louise pointed her wand at the spider who veiled the nightmare, and began to chant.

Returning a Great One's humanity was going to be difficult. But Louise had a different plan in mind. She was going to cheat. "My divine, beautiful, and powerful familiar, I wish and assert from the bottom of my heart, for you to answer my guidance." Louise waved her wand, willing Rom to open her eyes to Louise. The abyssal deepness that was Louise's precious piece of her, the magic that she owned fully and was not loaned to her by Nothing. It reached out and touched Rom, banishing Rom's Nightmare Form. The bit of Louise that was a god, that part of her that could, granted her wish. Much of her willpower was taken by this request.

It was worth it, she reckoned.

The spider began to dissolve, and in its place a different creature stood. A woman spliced into the body of a more lithe spider appeared before Louise.

Rom's hair was thick and glowing, made of the flowers that Rom once bore on her back. Waving vines that reached down to where her waist met with her monstrous body. The woman's skin was pale, almost white. The spider underneath the woman had eight long legs, and had its own head covered in eyes. More white glowing flowers grew from the spider's abdomen, waving and quivering. Rom was both beautiful and terrifying. The transformation wasn't exactly what Louise had expected.

Rom had been vastly changed. Clearly confused, all Rom's eyes blinking rapidly.

"I am Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière." Louise stepped up to Rom's lower head that was full of teeth. The massive jaws opened and closed, misty frost spilling out of its maw.

Rom inspected her human hands, wiggling the fingers. "What?" She whispered. Her human eyes gaining focus. "W-what?" Her voice was accented much as the Doll's, and trembled. Tears rolled from her eyes.

"Pentagon that rules the five powers, bless this great being and make her my familiar!" Louise reached up and grabbed Rom's hands, pulling the woman part down to Louise's level.

"Little thing, what have you done to me?" Rom painfully croaked.

Louise kissed Rom's lips.

The sealing was instantaneous. Rom reared back and screamed. Her monster body threw Louise onto her bum. Familiar runes burned into Rom's exposed chest, large letters written across her amble breasts. Rom's lower spider mouth opened wide, gushing forth icy water.

Rom stopped her flailing and stood at her fall height. "You talk to me, think around me, you love me, you change me, you make _me think_ and speak. You kiss me, then hurt me! Why?!"

She grabbed the sides of her head with her hands and screamed again. "Memories, Kosm, terrible memories! Why? Why? Why?!"

Louise slowly stood. "Calm down, I returned your humanity and made you my familiar."

"I was unthinking!" Rom lowered her hands, her pretty face snarling. She reached her right arm out and lance of ice appeared. "I will kill you, little thing."

Well, not everything can't to go according to plan. "I don't want to hurt you. Please, I wanted to talk. You can kill me a hundred times over, and I won't attack back."

Rom raised her lance. "Lies, little thing, I know lies. You'll fight, and one of us will die."

Louise opened her arms and closed her eyes. "Then do it please. I didn't want to hurt you, I don't want to hurt you anymore. Please, I know what happened to you. Kos, right, she turned you into what you were. And you tried so hard, so hard to protect people."

Rom sobbed, pained by whatever thoughts she must be having with the return of her consciousness. "What is it that you want?" She demanded.

"I wanted you to realize that I'm bringing an end to the nightmare. Without having to hurt you, I wanted you to lower the veil. There are places and secrets I need to find." Louise clenched her teeth, waiting to be killed at any moment. She kept her eyes closed, submitting herself before Rom.

"You think you can end this nightmare?" Rom laughed, a mad cackle filled with agony and despair. "It has been going on for thousands of years, little thing. Repeating again and again, making us play roles. Ha, ha, ha! Louise, that is no name to end nightmares."

Louise opened her eyes, all her eyes, and defied the divine being that was now her familiar. "I have declared myself Louise the Dreamer, and dreams are all that I have. Dreams of happiness. I can use dreams and nightmares, and I can turn nightmares into dreams. It is why I'm here, it must be. So, yes, Louise is my name and I will bring an end to this place, freeing everyone. I changed you because I dreamed that I could. I turned you into my second familiar because it was one of my dreams to talk to you. I am more than what you see. I can, I know I can free everyone!"

"Everyone? Even I?" Rom asked, her lance held high, arm trembling. "You think to free us all? Even the ones of cosmic birth? Free us of this prison that once was a nursery?"

Louise nodded.

Rom lowered her lance. "You do not lie. No, you believe that you can achieve this dream? Heh, heh, hee hee." Rom giggled nervously. "Madness. You hold the power of madness, and you want to make it reality. F-fine, prove it to me."

"I will, you have my honor as your master." Louise bowed to her divine familiar.

Rom did reply with words. Her response was to lower the veil of the nightmare.

The world shifted into insanity and horror.

Louise heard _his_ cry, a terrible agonizing torturous cry. It filled her, and she collapsed in front of Rom. The Great One reached down and rested a hand atop Louise's head, between her soft ears. "Go and find Murgo, he is the key to this damnation."

Louise pushed herself up and grasped Rom's hand. "You're helping me, as my familiar now, you'll help me." She demanded, defying the agonizing scream the echoed through the nightmare.

Rom looked to the sky, where a blood red moon had appeared. "I'm not sure what help I can assist, but so be it. You have my assistance. What is it you desire?"

"Be my friend, talk to me." Louise said, holding tightly to the pale white hand. "Please." She desperately needed others to talk to about the nightmare. But she was scared to speak with her friends in the Hunter's Dream. Scared to know what had changed. She would go and find Melody or someone else. Right now, if she asked for Rom's friendship, it would help her confidence in approaching her other friends again.

Rom tilted her head a little to the right, much as the Doll would. "Friendship? You ask for companionship?"

Louise nodded, desperately keeping that harrowing cry out of her mind. "Yes."

"I was ready to kill you just a minute ago. And yet... you're rather endearing."

"Please? You're my familiar, I want to get to know you."

Rom lowered her massive body, woman body leaning over Louise and pulling her into an embrace. "Very well, little thing. I will speak with you when you return to my abode. We shall resume our peaceful time together, whenever it is needed."

Louise hugged Rom back. She felt her essence being pulled away. "Thank you." Louise said, and dissolved into dust within Rom's embrace.

* * *

Flora stared at the wall of her prison cell. She was to be given a lesser sentence, incarceration for the rest of her life. Kos said she's visit. That was good. Right?

The darkness shifted within her cell.

Flora started, looking around her in fear. A cry, someone was being tortured. The sound did not come from outside the cell, but within her mind, her soul. What happened, why could she suddenly hear terrible sobbing and crying? She clutched her head, sitting at her bed. Taking calming breaths, Flora tried to think past the screams. It was no use.

Until the sobbing stopped, and her dark prison cell was quiet once again.

Was she truly mad? Perhaps she had lost her sanity when her lover was murdered. Flora rocked back and forth, whimpering. Should she have murdered the Count? She shouldn't have, it wasn't her place. It was anger that had driven her. Now she was beginning to hear sudden, terrible sounds.

It took her what felt like forever before she calmed herself down. She was tired, stressed over the prospect of being imprisoned for the remainder of her life.

The cry screamed through her mind again.

There would be no sleep tonight.


	11. Chapter 10

Louise walked through the caverns, climbed the ladders, and came across a slime person that was once a brainsucker. "Hey there!" she called, hoping this slime folk had enough wits about it. Telling the gender of slimes were difficult when they were in their puddle form.

"Eep, it's the Exploding Huntress!" The slime formed into a man and tried desperately to stumble, crawl, and then fall onto his face. His body turned into a puddle again, and he attempted to ooze into a crack.

"Hey, hold on! I don't recall coming here and curing you!" Louise ran up to the slime man, and attempted to grab at his slick blue flesh. Touching him was gross.

"Back off, I'll eat your brains!" The slime gurgled, inching away. He must have had his humanity recently returned to him to be so slow and clumsy.

Louise wasn't buying his tough guy act. She pointed her wand at him, pretty sure he was seeing her somehow. "Stop moving before I spread you across this courtyard."

Mr. Slime stopped and proceeded to tremble, his puddle wobbling in fear. A stench of sweat and urine assaulted Louise's nose and she covered it with a clawed hand. "Founder, I just want to talk. Why are people so scared of me, I'm not even a proper Hunter!"

"You just threatened to spread me across the courtyard. Don't hurt me! Mehheheheh." He formed into a young boy next and started crying, little crystals falling from his eyes.

Louise bowed her head, realizing that she did threaten him. It was a terrible habit. When she was a noble it worked, because commoners were meant to do as nobles say. But she wasn't one anymore, and she wasn't even in her country where she had the right to boss people around. "I'm sorry, please stop crying."

"Muhheheheh!" The slime boy continued to cry, rubbing at his eyes. "Don't hurt me, I just wanted to take a walk."

"Oi!" Another man's voice echoed over the courtyard. "You girl, are you harassing my friend there!"

Louise looked up to spot a beast-blooded man, he had doggy ears and a tail, standing atop a rooftop, right above a ladder. More people walked up beside the new stranger, other beast-blooded citizens of Yharnam with their wits returned and their blood cleansed. Everyone had cloth covering their eyes, and bandages tightly wrapped from differing injuries.

She waved at them, attempting to be friendly. "I was just trying to talk. I'm sorry if I'm a bit, uhm-"

"You're that lady who's been exploding us!" A teenage girl said, without any beastly traits. She looked like an older version of Melody, with blonde hair.

"Yeah, that's me. I've been fixing you guys." Louise said, realizing how lame she must sound.

"Fixing us! The good doctor fixes us, you explode us." A boy yelled.

The first man to speak raised a Molotov-cocktail, the piece of cloth sticking out of the bottle pre-lit. "Go away Lady Explosion, leave us be! The night is long, it's too long, and you're making a real mess of Yharnam."

"Please, I just want to talk!" Louise said, stepping away from the still crying slime.

"You go about hurting us!" The man threw the cocktail. Louise grabbed the startled slime, and yanked him out of the way, jumping from the explosive fire.

"Hey, you about hurt your friend here!" Louise let go of the slime, shaking off the bits of him that slung to her furred hands.

"Shit, I got too angry and forgot about him. See what you've done to us you stupid Hunter, I'm losing my temper just looking at you!"

"What's this ruckus?" A hunter dressed in grey walked up to the edge of the roof and joined the small group that had gathered.

Louise pointed at him in surprise. "Hey, you're that guy who kept killing me with a Gatling-gun!"

"Oh, you. The noisy little girl, stirring up trouble." The Hunter shook his head. "Killing people left and right at first, then you go about turning them to humans again. We don't understand you. What are you trying to gain by your actions?"

Louise notice the slime oozing to the ladder and crawling up its rungs. She let him go. "I'm not from around here. I didn't know what was happening at first, and then I found a way to try and help people. Having your wits about you is better than being a flesh hungry beast, right?"

"That it is, but you're not the only one who's fixing people. The good doctor doesn't need to blow them up first. Her process isn't so painful." The Hunter said. He raised his Stake-driver, inspecting the contraption as if to see if it was in good enough condition to battle with.

"A doctor is doing the same thing? Let me meet her, I want to help."

"Help? You're methods cause as much trouble as it helps." He looked up into the sky, at the blood red moon hanging above. "Night's getting stranger, and I'm feeling a bad sense of déjà vu."

"How does me fixing people cause trouble!" Louise yelled up at the Hunter.

"You're hurting them, that's how. Most the folks who come here are either injured by your method, or don't make it pass the still hungry beasts."

"They don't listen to me! I have a safe place for them to go to."

"Of course they don't listen, after having their bodies thrown again the ground painfully so, anyone would run away from you." The man knelt at the ladder and reached a hand to the slime that had been slowly climbing up its rungs. A slimy tentacle reached up and wrapped around the offered hand, and the Hunter pulled the slime up with the rest of them. The slime reformed into a teenage boy, hiding behind the first man that appeared at the top of the ladder.

"Well, I want to meet this doctor and learn her less painful methods!" Louise put her hands onto her hips and waved her tail irritably. These people were really ungrateful. And now she knew why. There was a doctor who could do the same as Louise, and her methods were better. Well excuse Louise for trying her best!

"Your name, what is it?" The gray clad Hunter asked.

"Louise the Dreamer!" She didn't bother sharing her last name, she needed to be in practice of not saying that.

"Well Miss Dreamer, I'm Djura. A retired hunter of the Powder Kegs."

"Glad to have your acquaintance, now the doctor? It would be best if the people with the sanity intact, or returned, worked together." Louise liked the idea of having a small army of peasants to help her traverse the hidden village. That place was dangerous.

"Go get me a crate, Viola." Djura said to the teenage girl next to him. "We'll have the beastly hunter leave her weapons in it. Including that boomstick you wave about."

Louise gritted her teeth. It wasn't like they could steal her items. Once she died, they disolved into dust with her and returned on her person when she stepped back into the Hunter's Dream, or awoke. It was a choice she could make now, stay dreaming or let the pain awake her. She actually hadn't returned to the Hunter's Dream just yet, nervous about meeting anyone that could be interacting with real world people. She knew it was foolish, but she wasn't ready to know what happened after she left just yet.

Viola left and returned some time later with a crate and ropes. They lowered the crate down to her, and she disarmed herself. It wasn't like they could take her claws or if Founder forbid, her other form. She'd rather let them kill her instead of returning to that form though.

Climbing the ladder, Djura nodded at her, and led her across several more rooftops into the back entrance of a clinic. There a few hundred of people milling about, and several shied away from Louise once they recognized her. It seemed like all the Yharnamites had bandages over their eyes. She didn't understand the point. It was like everyone preferred darkness. Was it the beast-blood that affected their sense of sight?

"Why does everyone cover their eyes?" Louise asked Djura as he lead her up a grand stairwell.

"Its the light. Even those who lack beastly traits have sensitive sight. We can get around by smell alone. You reek of the moon. Which, if you haven't noticed yet, is a bit terrifying at the moment." Djura said, and opened the door into a surgery room.

A woman with blond hair dressed in the white garb of the Healing Church was sitting in a chair. That must be the good doctor. It wasn't what caught Louise's eyes.

On a table with tubes in her arms was an elf.

Louise jumped back in alarm.

Djura whirred his stakedriver, powering up the mechanism and took an aggressive stance. "Don't try anything, Dreamer."

Louise looked between him and the elf in the room. The elf slowly sat up. She was wore a casual red dress. On second glance, the elf wasn't Seeker, but it was still very startling to see one of the scourge of her world here. "Is she a guest too?!" Louise pointed at the blond elf.

"Miss Westwood ain't going to hurt you, if you're scared of her. She's the nicest person here." Djura said, his blunder-bust aimed at Louise. "You wanted to meet the doctor, the miss is her assistant."

Louise flexed her claws, nervously looking between the elf and the doctor.

The elf rubbed at her eyes, and blinked owlishly back at Louise.

"You're from my world." The elf said, pulling her legs around and sitting atop the table's edge. "What's someone else doing here?"

"Your world? Excuse me, it's my world. You're the plague that shouldn't be on my world." Louise snapped, clenching her fists, digging her claws into her palms. "What are you doing here!"

"I'm stuck here, when I summoned a familiar I was sent here. Iosefka listened to me, and let me into her clinic. I've been helping ever sense. I even saved Iosefka once when her reflection attacked her." The elf said, picking up a loose cloth hat and covering her ears.

The doctore gave a heavy sigh. "Djura, please remove this young lady from my establishment, if she's going to be so rude." Doctor Iosefka said, rubbing her brow as if she were coming down with a headache.

"Rude?! She's an elf, she's evil!" Louise snapped, beginning to hyperventilate, her blood steaming with anger. "I've been attacked by an elf phantom, how do I know she's not in league with the elf that hurt me!"

The doctor chuckled. "Every outsider from Yharnam must know each other right?"

The elf shook her head. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry. I'm actually half human, I don't know any other elves aside from my mother." The elf covered her mouth with her dainty hands.

Her cute voice, her sweet mannerisms, it must all be an act to pool the Yharnamites. "She's lying, elves on my world are terrible monsters that want to wipe out humanity. They even use..." Louise was going to say something about nature magic, but caught herself. She had used that magic to turn herself back into a beast-blooded human. Illococoo could use that magic, and she was a nice dragon. Louise had asked Illococoo for friendship even, though she was rejected.

It still hurt knowing that Tabitha must have taken Illococoo away, telling the familiar not to talk to Louise. She assumed Tabitha told Illococoo something like that.

Louise grabbed her animal ears, frustrated at the contradiction she herself had become. "Fine, I'll leave. It's not like I need your help if _she's_ here." She pointed at the elf and then turned around, and stormed off.

"Wait!" The elf said, and Louise heard hard shoes clacking on the tile floor. "You're like me, right? You've been stuck here too."

Louise shook her head without turning around to look at the stupid girl's face. "I was stuck, then I was attacked, and found a way to heal myself. But, it cost me." She thought of the Doll. Talking to an elf was foolish, they would just give her lies. She already had one elf that wanted to kill her. Seeing another made her stomach twist.

If Louise had her weapons on her at the moment, she might see if the elf might be telling the truth and kill her. Then, if the elf was like Louise, she could return to the Hunter's Dream.

"Have you died yet?" Louise asked.

"N-no, I haven't."

"That's how you get out. If you're really like me. But, you're not. You're a liar." Louise smirked as she walked down the stairwell.

Djura followed behind, likely making sure Louise didn't try anything damning within the safe haven that was Iosefka's clinic.

"You're the one who's curing people with explosions!" The elf walked up to Louise's side. "The doctor uses my blood to cure people. I can do the explosion cure too. You and I are the same!"

Louise paused, and Djura put a hand on her shoulder as a silent warning. "Kill yourself, or fall to a beast. That's how its done, then we'll see." She looked to Djura. "Sorry to intrude, I'll make sure to never come back."

Djura frowned at her, his aged face wrinkling with discontent. "You're rather spiteful, considering your attitude earlier. Miss Westwood has been nothing but helpful."

"Please, don't leave. If you really know how to escape this place and return, I need to know. I don't know what's happening in the real world. It feels like ages sense I've been here, the night just doesn't end." The elf ran in front of Louise and fell to her knees.

Louise sniffed and turned her nose up in disgust. Then she smelled the moon upon the elf and that angered her even further. Did that damn moon god even care who he dragged here? Oh right, it wasn't supposedly his fault that all this mess started. Not, at, all. He sure had his part in all this though, with the moon turning red. Or perhaps, the moon was always red and Rom kept that hidden.

"Please, my name is Tiffinia Westwood, I live in Albion. When I summoned my familiar, it was to help protect the village I stayed near. You have to listen to me, I was raised by humans, I'm half human, my ears and heritage doesn't make me who I am."

Louise noticed where Tiffania's gaze rest, just slightly above her head.

"You've been changed like them. Won't your people ridicule you like they have me for my ears? You must have to hide beastly traits. People won't understand, right? I know how you must feel about me, but you and I are alike in this regard. Our magic must be alike too!"

She wanted to hurt this elf. She wanted to give into the rage and frustration that screamed for her to end the elf right now. Tiffania was her name right? Louise wanted to test if the elf truly was honest. A part of her though, a small part, doubted her own impulsive wants. That little piece of humanity, of empathy, actually listened to the elf's words.

"I'm leaving. Its good that you saved that doctor and helped. But I won't be around your ilk." Louise stepped past Tiffania. She focused reached into one of her pouches and retrieved a Bold Hunter's Mark.

"Please, at least tell me what's happened to Albion!"

"Plague, the whole country has said to have been taken by an epidemic. Read it in the newspaper yesterday. The boarders are closed, no one gets in, no gets out." Louise felt her ears press down into her hair. She wasn't the only one in the world dealing with insanity. She pitied Albion's woes. "I'm serious about you dying if you're telling the truth. Djura should know what I mean. The Hunter's Dream will restore you if you're connected. Then I'll talk with you." Louise pressed the mark to her forehead, using the disposable magic focus to step between realms.

"Thank you." Tiffania sobbed in reply.

A true, heart wrenching crack in the elf's voice.

Louise woke up crying. She pressed a clawless hand to her eyes. Lies, the elf was lying to her and those people. Just lies. All those people, huddled in a clinic with bandages on their eyes. That was the doctor's cure, transfusion with elf blood.

Or was it supposedly the special magic Louise held. A special element that an elf might be a wielder of as well? If that was true, if the elf spoke honestly, then Louise had turned her back on probably the one person she could speak with on the abyssal hole inside her.

* * *

Louise served another customer, attempting to hold her temper, her tongue, her steaming beast blood. "Oi, you're a little small to be working here." The man jeered, poking Louise's chest. "What's this, nothing! I came here for the service of women, not skinny brats."

She slammed his food onto the table. "Here's your meal, sir! Enjoy your breakfast." With a sudden about-face, she made sure her tail smacked his head.

"Oof! Your accessory hit me."

Louise smacked him in the face with her tail a second time. She turned again, pressing a finger to her lips, attempting to be cute. "Oh, I'm so sorry! A noble friend of mine gifted me this tail and ears. Because I'm adorable, meow." And she was cute, damnit! So what, she lacked in certain areas. It wasn't her fault she was born with flatness.

"Oooh, so you're kinky then!" The man leaned forward again, wiggling his eyebrows.

Louise flustered, and without thinking, she grabbed the nearest drink and dumped it on his head. Her insight suggested that might have been going to far. She ignored the little voice of her that begged for caution, and marched off to serve her next table.

Jessica was at the bar, leaning out, damnable breasts looking like they wanted to spill from her dress.

This place had mastered the art of flaunting women in front of men, teasing them, without the promise of going any further. Louise had noted that many of the girls let men touch their butts. Some even pressed their chests up to the men when they sat down to talk. At first, her new job was embarrassing. That wore off by the second day. She could adept to a new setting. The tavern girls weren't nearly as perverse at the beast-blooded snake people, or Naga.

"I'm not getting any tips this morning." Louise grumbled, sitting at the bar and resting her head atop it. "I'm trying really hard." A sniffle dared to tickle her nose and she rubbed at it angrily.

She was failing at being a peasant of all things. Killing beasts, returning humanity to beasts, successfully casting magic. She made a Great One her familiar for Founder's sake! She could do all these things. But serve men? That was somehow impossible for her.

"Don't worry, I think you're attracting a different sort of customer now. Word of mouth has it in town, that there's a girl that likes to dress like a kitty-cat and has the temper of one too." Jessica winked at her. "You'll be raking in tips before you know it. Maybe even win the upcoming competition."

"People are talking about my, uhm, cat accessories?" Louise lowered her ears, attempting to hide them in her long hair. They were too damn big. And her tail was impossible to hide with the skimpy maid uniform that she was required to wear.

"You could have accepted being my help in the kitchens." Jessica just had to push that topic.

Louise shook her head. "I can get tips. I can flaunt my femininity too!" Louise was attempting to learn how to flirt and seduce men. It was empowering and she couldn't let plain women beat her.

"Oh no." Jessica moaned, a sound of dismay.

Louise felt the very air and mood of the tavern crash into oblivion. She smelled a sudden influx of human fear, the closest coming off Jessica. She turned around to see what had ruined the atmasphere.

Several guards in noblemen uniform marched into the tavern's main dining hall. A fat fellow stepped in behind the guards, dressed in fine attire. Without a word spoken, the tavern emptied in a rush. Customers stood, hastily paid their tabs, and walked out. The serving girls squeaked with fright, running away to the kitchen.

"Oi! Scarron, you weird man-woman, your taxes are due."

Scarron, Jessica's father, sauntered out of the kitchen and stood at the nobleman's table. He dropped his womanly accent and crossed his large muscular arms. "I paid my taxes already." His voice was crisp and clear.

Louise had never heard the man speak normally. It was like he took off a mask, and his anger cleansed his normally jovial pitch.

"Ooh?" The nobleman leaned to one side of the chair. "I'll have to recheck my books. Send me my usual, give me something juicy to grab."

Scarron's muscles flexed, and then he took up his normal custom of acting like an over the top woman. The mask returning, or perhaps, the real him pulling himself back together. "Oof course, my dearest master. One fairy, brave fairy, come serve this gentleman's meal." Without another word, the tavern owner twirled on his feet and sauntered away, adding a swing to his hips with every exaggerated step.

Louise sighed. Even big muscular men could walk better than her.

Shaking her head, Louise stood up, ready to try to do better. She could be charming. And this man looked like he was super rich.

"No, don't go. You'll get in trouble." Jessica attempted to lean over the counter top, her hand grabbing at Louise.

She didn't heed Jessica's warning, stepping out of reach, and heading to the kitchen window. Several of the young women poked their heads up to meet Louise's eyes. One of them with curly green hair pushed a large tray of food to the edge of the window. "It was nice knowing you." The green haired woman whispered, and ducked away.

Louise shook her head. Why were the common girls so scared of a nobleman? They should gladly serve nobility, it was their place in society. In return, the nobility led plain people to in peace, and sacrificed their lives for the better of the country if need be. She picked up the plate, eager to get a good tip this time. Noblemen were rich, and he was a tax collector, so he must be paid extra to shake down criminal scum.

She put on her cutest smile and walked to the single occupied table within the store. "Here's your meal sir, we had plenty of food ready to serve." She showed her teeth, hoping her fangs weren't two noticeable today. Maybe they might come off as a cute country girl's heritage. Technically, Louise was a girl from the countryside.

"They're letting men serve now? Cross dressing with a cat outfit, like that freaky tavern owner?" The fat man lifted his plate cover and tossed it over his shoulder.

Louise stood at attention, desperately attempting to keep a cute air about her. Her tail wanted to whip about in frustration. She reached back and grabbed it, clutching it tight until it hurt. Tears welled up in her eyes at the abuse of her sensitive extension of her spine. "I'm sorry if I don't meet your standards." She could pull off the nice little woman act. It could work. She was reading lots of romantic books lately where the small ladies were charming and sweet.

"Ooh, now that I got a second look at you, you're just lacking in assets. Tried putting on different assets to compensate, eehh? Those ears look almost real." The nobleman reached up to Louise's head.

She panicked and froze, unable to decide if she should back away, smack him, or something else. He pinched her left animal ear in a perverse manner, sending a creeping chill down her spine. "Noo." Louise moaned, wincing at his touch, but kept her body still.

Least she retaliate and hurt the nobleman.

"I like that reaction! Good acting, good." He took his hand back and rubbed his chin. "There can be a certain charm about such a tiny body. Sit down girl."

Louise decided that any tip from this man wasn't worth it. Everything inside her screamed to run away and not look back, or she might murder him. "I-I have to go help in the kitchens. Th-th-th-"

"Sit, that's an order." Guards stepped forward and one roughly pushed Louise into a chair that hadn't been there moments ago. "I'm not an unreasonable man, I can accept meager offers like yourself." The nobleman started eating his meal, lacking any proper decorum.

"Meager offers?" Louise asked, scared to know the answer.

"Yuhh." He patted her head with greasy hands. "Thow'se ur pwuddy rehlestic."He swallowed his food. "What about that tail, is it some sort of magic costume? Something real deviant to be walking around with. You, new guy, grab that tail and pull it."

"As you command." A guard said, his voice distinctly accented.

Louise closed her eyes, blushing furiously at the prospect of what was about to happen to her. She was attempting her best not to get angry. She could be a commoner, she could be obedient, she could survive humility. It was to keep those she loved safe. Right?

The guard pulled her tail and Louise yelped, but held firm. She opened her eyes, holding back a squeak when the guard yanked at it several more times. This was a test of her loyalty to her country. A terrible, humiliating, test. Her face burned with shame, but she prevailed.

"Feels real, sir?" The guard said, a confused hitch in his tone. "Even originates where the spine ends."

Louise whimpered, did he have to share that last detail?

The noble-man leaned forward and grinned at Louise. "There's a reward out for someone with your description. Did you know that little miss?"

"I-I, no, I didn't know that." She hadn't known, she'd been rather focused on sleeping and traveling. Rom's lakebed was a tranquil place and she was easily lost within its open expanse. If she didn't have pressing concerns, it would have been a wonderful place to visit every night.

"What's your name?" The man rubbed his fatty chin.

"L-Louise." For the first time, Louise regretted not making up a new name.

"The reward is for someone with cat like features. It's awfully vague. Doesn't say what you did, but it comes right out of the palace coffers." The man said, a dangerous glint in his eye. "I'll keep your secret, in trade for a night to see how real them ears and tail are."

A cold chill ran down Louise's spine, the fur on her tail fluffing out as the chill ran to its tip. "You don't really mean that."

"I do!" He leaned in close, his breath assaulting her nose. "You're a commoner right? Its well known nobles like myself enjoy new mistresses. You'll be taken care of. Hidden away like you want. Isn't that right?"

Louise looked over her shoulder, both to get the man's face out of her vision and to see Jessica at the bar with an expression of deep concern. No, sadness, sorrow.

Was this really happening? Did noblemen like this man, just go and grab whatever girl he might find interest with? He was a pervert, a clear outright pervert, and no one else in the room was attempting to say anything. Louise realized that no one could. He had the authority here, it wasn't their place to stand up against what was clearly wrong.

Louise looked to the guard who had been yanking at her tail, and despite the rough treatment he looked ashamed and embarrassed to be apart of this. Did Princess Henrietta realize how openly corrupt some of the nobility were? Questions, more damning questions. Louise's world continued to shift and crack, and this had nothing to do with the nightmare or strange gods.

She looked back into the eyes of the man who was asking for her. Wasn't this what she wanted? No, she wanted to learn how to flirt with men, tease them and make them do as she said without beating them into submission. It sounded like a fun skill to have.

This was wrong. So very wrong.

"No." Louise stood from her chair. "I refuse. I'd rather be arrested." She'd let herself be arrested, tell the Princess what happened, and then run away again. Simple and easy plan.

"Hohoho!" The nobleman slapped the table. "You don't have a choice here."

Louise flustered. "Why not!? I could slap you, make sure I get arrested. I'd be released, and you wouldn't get a reward."

The man gave her a wild, teeth baring grin. "I like the feisty ones. What do you think might happen to this shop if you don't do as I say?"

Blackmail? Serious blackmail? Louise sat herself back into the chair, her heart thumping in her head. She could kill this man right now. She could kill the guards. Turn into her Nightmare Form, cause a bit of a mess, and stir up a story about an unfortunate tragedy that befell the man. Still, such an event would ruin the shop. The girls here were happy, they enjoyed their perverted lifestyle. Louise didn't want to take their happiness away. Jessica was a kind person who likely saved Louise form being attacked on the streets when she was sleep walking.

That was also an issue she couldn't let herself think on at the moment.

Glancing over her shoulder again, Jessica or her father had disapeared. She could smell their scents, hiding behind walls. There was the scent of tears, and if she strained her ears, she heard sniffling noises.

She decided to take a different approach. A solution, a revelation that could be shared. She reached into her pocket, and touched a stone. Whispering the words in her mind, a difficult task but not impossible, she activated the Dream Stones. Something new, a magic item she intended to use to record some of the more redicule customer's comments, so she could re-listen to them and practice not losing her temper.

"Have you taken other girls from Scarron's tavern?" Louise asked, her voice a healthy conversation level, calm but serious. "Blackmailed them, obviously taking them against their wishes to keep their dignity?

"Mmm, maybe. Its fun finding out who's a virgin and not." The man said, no, gloated.

"You've damned yourself." Louise declared, then smiled at his over confident smirk. "Take me away, I'd like to see what other dirty secrets you have. I accept your challenge, and I'll win. I'll show everyone for what you really are."

"Ooh!" The nobleman sneered. "You're the kind of girl that dreams she can out smart a nobleman. Just remember, I'll keep you hidden. I'll make sure the palace never finds you."

Louise yawned, hiding it behind a hand. "I'll go get my stuff. Hey you, Mr. Molester Pants." She channeled her inner childish behavior in that insult. The guard stiffened at the description. "Come with me and help." She yawned again, feeling sleepy.

Real world problems were serious. Compared to fighting a city full of monsters, how difficult could taking care of one corrupt man be?


End file.
